Photo: Redleg Nation Staff
The Cincinnati Reds have made three roster moves this afternoon prior to the start of game two of the series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Right-handed reliever Graham Ashcraft has been activated from the bereavement list. To make room on the roster for Ashcraft the Reds have optioned right-handed reliever Zach Maxwell back to Triple-A Louisville. Joining Maxwell on the move to Louisville is left-handed pitcher Nick Lodolo, who was officially sent out to join the Bats for a rehab start tonight in Omaha where the Triple-A team is currently playing.
Ashcraft is rejoining the team after spending a few days away. According to the RedsTV broadcast on the day in which he was placed on the bereavement list his grandfather was sick and he left to go see him. Cincinnati certainly missed him while he was gone but was able to make it work as he wasn’t going to make a difference in the loss last night to the Pirates. He’s pitched in 15 games this season and has a 1.20 ERA over his 15.0 innings pitched.
Zach Maxwell is heading back to Triple-A. Last night he pitched in his only game of the call up that he had earlier this week when he came up for Ashcraft. Maxwell gave up two home runs and four runs total on three hits and two walks in 1.0+ innings of work.
As for Nick Lodolo, he’s looking towards his second rehab start this time around after pitching 5.0 shutout innings with seven strikeouts in Dayton on Sunday. Now he’s moving up to Triple-A to face the Storm Chasers in Omaha at 7:05pm ET tonight. The game is available to watch if you have MLBtv or RedsTV through the app or online at MiLB.com.
Lodolo threw 51 pitches in his outing on Sunday and he’ll up that again tonight. He’s also expected to throw more sliders in this game than he did when he was in Dayton. The slider is the pitch that has been causing the blister issue he’s battled for the last five weeks. He did not throw any sliders in his work in April before he took the mound with the Dragons. In that start he threw fewer than 10 sliders but did mix a few of them in there during the game.
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