NEW YORK -- After Nick Lodolo's saga with a blister and three lackluster starts since returning on May 8, Monday's performance for the Reds vs. the Mets was much more to his liking and expectations.
Lodolo completed six innings and got plenty of support while Cincinnati opened a three-game series with a 7-2 win at Citi Field.
“Definitely a lot better, for sure," Lodolo said. "Definitely some things I’ve got to do a better job of, but overall, I’m happy with it.”
The Reds (28-25), who endured a lousy first two-plus weeks of May, have won four of their last five games.
Lodolo threw 98 pitches, with the only run that scored off him a sixth-inning home run by Marcus Semien. Otherwise, the left-hander gave up six hits overall with no walks and seven strikeouts, twice hitting Carson Benge with pitches.
“He hit their leadoff guy with two breaking balls that he threw behind him. But other than that, he worked ahead, he threw a lot of strikes, he spun, he had good velocity, threw some changeups. That was really well done," Reds manager Terry Francona said.
A blister on Lodolo's left index finger developed during his final Spring Training start on March 22, and it took several weeks to get it under control. In his three starts prior to Monday, Lodolo had a 7.20 ERA as the Reds lost all three games.
In those starts, Lodolo had nine walks. Not walking any Mets batters on Monday was a welcome sign.
“I feel like it’s been trending in this direction the past couple of times," said catcher Tyler Stephenson, who hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning. "I think his last start, he threw well. There were just some walks, and he cleaned that up, obviously, in between starts, and did a really good job today. The breaking ball was continuing to get better.”
That curveball, which is what has triggered Lodolo's blister issue in each of the last three seasons, got the Mets to whiff eight of the 15 times he threw it.
“That’s one thing I’ve been working on," Lodolo said. "I’m starting to get a better feel for it as I get a couple of more starts.”
The Reds already had a 2-0 lead against Mets starter Nolan McLean in the top of the third inning when JJ Bleday -- who entered the day in a 3-for-27 stretch -- hit a 1-0 pitch to right-center field for a solo homer, his seventh of 2026.
Cincinnati sent nine men to the plate in the top of the fourth and improved its lead with Spencer Steer's two-run single to center field. Stephenson followed Steer with his homer to left field to make it a 7-0 game.
“It’s huge," Bleday said. "If you can put up runs early, it just gives our pitchers confidence, and [you] kind of can relax a little bit in a way like, ‘OK, let’s keep pressing, let’s keep putting up runs,’ but in the back of your mind [you know] we’re in a good spot.”
Lodolo had two outs in the fifth inning when he hit Benge for the second time and Bo Bichette added a single to right field. But he shut it down when Mark Vientos fanned on a 2-2 curveball before it struck his leg for the third out on his 83rd pitch to keep the shutout going into the sixth inning.
Semien led off and hit a 3-2 sinker to the left-field seats for the Mets' first run. But Lodolo recovered, and as the bullpen started warming up, he retired the rest of the side in order to get a quality start for the first time in 2026.
“I think for a lot of reasons, that's good," Francona said. "You don’t want to push guys too early, but once they’re starting to pitch, I think it’ll help him for when he gets into a jam next time, where he won’t run out of pitches or won’t be tired too early.”
It also helped the number of outs the bullpen needed to finish the game. Brock Burke, Tejay Antone, Sam Moll and Graham Ashcraft combined to get those nine outs with only one more run crossing. Moll in particular was impressive by striking out the side in the bottom of the eighth inning.