ST. LOUIS – Command and control were Nick Lodolo’s calling cards throughout his minor league career, one of the reasons he rated as an elite prospect.
Lodolo doesn’t throw 100 mph. He has an impressive curveball, but it’s probably not the nastiest breaking ball on a pitching staff. He thrives when he remains in the strike zone, overpowering hitters with his ability to locate pitches.
None of that showed up Saturday.
In Lodolo’s final start before the All-Star break, his command abandoned him. He lasted only two innings in the Cincinnati Reds’11-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, a game that felt even more lopsided than the score showed. The Cardinals left 12 runners on base and the Reds totaled four hits.
"I just really didn’t feel like I was moving in the right direction and just couldn’t make an adjustment," Lodolo said. "I would try to make an adjustment and it would go the other way. It’s just something I have to figure out."
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Lodolo needed 67 pitches to record six outs. He offered a free pass to six of his 17 batters with three walks and three hit batsmen. There was a stretch in the first inning when he walked three consecutive batters while throwing one strike.
"It’s something I haven’t gone through," Lodolo said. "It’s kind of weird just losing the zone like that on the field. I’m known for throwing strikes a lot. When I’m out there, I think maybe I’m trying to overcorrect because I’m thinking I’m a lot further off than I am."
Jonathan India opened the game with a solo homer on the game’s seventh pitch, a 398-foot blast off Miles Mikolas into the left-field seats for his seventh career leadoff homer, but it was all downhill from there.
Lodolo had two outs with a runner on second base when the first inning derailed on him. He walked Albert Pujols on five pitches. He issued a four-pitch walk to Tyler O’Neill to load the bases, prompting a mound visit from catcher Tyler Stephenson. Next up was a four-pitch walk to Brendan Donovan.
He was squeezed on some borderline pitches by home-plate umpire Mark Wegner on all three walks, but he wasn’t challenging hitters in the strike zone, either.
"I’m not even worried about (throwing a ball down the middle) at that point," Lodolo said. "I walked a guy on four straight. After that, I’m just trying to be in the zone.
"Personally, I don't even know if I got squeezed. I didn't look back at it yet. That's not the problem."
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After Lodolo allowed the game-tying run to score on a walk, and a mound visit from pitching coach Derek Johnson, he had Edmundo Sosa in a 0-2 count before an inside fastball hit Sosa on his elbow guard.
The same thing happened in the second inning. Lodolo had two outs and a runner on second when things snowballed. Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run homer that was nearly robbed by left fielder Stuart Fairchild. Goldschmidt turned around and took a step toward the dugout after rounding first base, thinking the ball was caught, before he was told it was indeed a homer. It was the 300th homer of his career.
The damage didn’t stop there. After Pujols dropped a single into right field, Lodolo hit two batters on back-to-back pitches. Then Sosa drove in a run on a ground ball that deflected off Lodolo’s glove and into no-man’s land in the infield.
When it rains, it pours, even on a sunny 99-degree afternoon.
From there, it was a bullpen game with a fatigued bullpen. Jeff Hoffman allowed two more runs in the third inning.
"I do think the last couple of days," Reds Manager David Bell said, "what we went through over the last week to get some of the wins did catch up to us a little bit."
In the seventh inning, the Reds looked like a last-place team in the dog days of summer. Joey Votto was charged with an error when his throw to second base pulled shortstop Matt Reynolds off the bag on a fielder’s choice. The original out call was overturned on a replay review. The runner, Andrew Knizer, figured he was out and jogged to second base, so Reynolds had time to step on the base if he realized his foot didn’t stay attached when he caught it.
Later in the inning, with the bases loaded and the infield drawn in, Reynolds cleanly fielded a grounder at shortstop and threw to the plate. The throw bounced between catcher Tyler Stephenson’s legs and rolled to the backstop, allowing a run to score on the error.
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