Elly De La Cruz makes history as Reds earn series split with Miami Marlins<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cHe\u2019s been huge to us,\u201d Abbott said, \u201cevery fifth day being there, being able to throw, five, six, seven, eight innings, whatever he\u2019s asked to do. We\u2019ve said for years, when healthy he\u2019s very, very, very good. You\u2019re seeing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick Lodolo is now reliable piece in Reds rotation<\/p>\n
Mostly, you\u2019re seeing him. For every scheduled start this year. That\u2019s been the key for the 6-foot-6 combination of angles, deception and stuff \u2013 a pitcher some scouts in recent years suggested might be the best on the staff.<\/p>\n
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If only he could stay healthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely feel like I\u2019m in the best position I\u2019ve been in, in a couple years, health-wise,\u201d said Lodolo, whose ERA through 19 starts is 3.38 as he prepares for his first start on the other side of the All-Star break.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of that was because of my offseason, being able to train and put myself in position to do that,\u201d he said. \u201cNow the goal is to keep doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
How significant are those 19 starts and full-capacity workload through the All-Star break?<\/p>\n
Not only has he completed a first half without a trip to the injured list for the first time in four big-league seasons, but Lodolo is just two starts and 9 2\/3 innings from matching last year\u2019s career-high workload for a season.<\/p>\n
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Thanks in large part, he said, to that normal offseason this past winter that represented another first.<\/p>\n
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Nick Lodolo enters the All-Star Break just two starts and 9 2\/3 innings from matching last year\u2019s career-high workload for a season. He hasn’t made an appearance on the Injured List for the first time in his four seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always dealing with an issue,\u201d pitching coach Derek Johnson said. \u201cHe could train fully (this time). And I think he\u2019s looked really good. He\u2019s thrown a lot of strikes, probably more than he ever really has. So he\u2019s throwing the ball really well and put himself in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lodolo, who was drafted seventh overall by the Reds out of TCU in 2019, missed more than two months in his debut 2022 season because of a lower back injury.<\/p>\n
He missed all but the first six weeks of the season in 2023 because of a stress reaction\/fracture in his leg.<\/p>\n
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Reds’ Nick Lodolo has avoided IL for first time in four seasons<\/p>\n
Then he opened last season on the IL with a calf strain thought to be related to the rehab and buildup from the leg injury, and followed that with three subsequent IL stints for a groin, finger blister and finger sprain \u2013 missing nearly half the season in total.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last two years haven\u2019t been easy,\u201d Lodolo said. \u201cI still got to throw a decent amount last year, but I was so undertrained for so long that I just kind of rolled it out there. And it felt like every five days was kind of a struggle to get back out there from a health standpoint. I was still healthy. But you don\u2019t feel as strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be the way I feel right now is definitely a plus.\u201d<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s been as much a plus for a team trying to keep its fragile playoff plans intact down the stretch as it has been for Lodolo\u2019s professional psyche.<\/p>\n
Especially with Greene unable to shake a pesky groin injury that landed him on the IL twice and most recently pushed back a rehab assignment \u2013 turning what initially looked like a two-week injury into a months-long saga.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve all seen when (the starters) are healthy and they\u2019re together they\u2019re all pretty good, and they give us a chance to win,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cSo that\u2019s probably the biggest part of it. The question is can they all stay together and stay healthy long enough for us to make a push.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s Lodolo\u2019s plan for his corner of the rotation.<\/p>\n
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\u201cJust keep making turns every five days and at the end of the year look up and see where we\u2019re at,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the biggest thing for me. And really just more for the team, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s a lot easier when you focus on just winning baseball games,\u201d Lodolo added.<\/p>\n
Reds’ Nick Lodolo pitching his best into All-Star Break<\/p>\n
He might even be getting stronger toward that end. In his last five starts he has a 2.28 ERA with 27 strikeouts, seven walks, and the team is 4-1 in those starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like where I\u2019m at,\u201d he said, \u201cat least health-wise. It\u2019s just continuing to chug along and keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
He should push well into career-high territory for workload by the end of the month.<\/p>\n
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\u201cObviously, I would like to not just beat it. I\u2019d like to blow past it,\u201d Lodolo said. \u201cIt would be good (for this year) and for setting me up for next year as well. That way I know what it takes to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Already he\u2019s \u201ca guy we can count on every fifth day,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cHe works hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe deserves everything (he\u2019s achieving).\u201d<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Mr. Reliable: How Nick Lodolo became backbone of Cincinnati Reds staff<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Abbott is the All-Star, Hunter Greene the triple-digit Opening Day starter, Nick Martinez the $21-million man. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[2001,5,535,50,4259,1177,2102,1816,4,1331,761,536],"class_list":{"0":"post-167299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-andrew-abbott","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-reds","12":"tag-cincinnatireds","13":"tag-elly-de-la-cruz","14":"tag-hunter-greene","15":"tag-marlins","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-nick-lodolo","18":"tag-nick-martinez","19":"tag-reds"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114832485035715643","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/384330a6473ac3a833f2066127b65d2c.jpeg\"\/)
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