Nick Lodolo battled for two years with a variety of strange injuries, mostly with his legs and a blister, but a few problems with his arm or shoulder.
The 27-year-old left-hander was limited to 28 starts. Still, he was the winning pitcher 11 times with 7 losses. Lodolo lost his last two starts and was shut down after his start on August 22.
He also missed the first 13 games of the season and 16 more between May 11 and 27.
It is early, but based on his first three starts, the injuries are a painful, distant memory.
Through three starts, he is 2-1 with a 0.96 ERA. Lodolo was the victim of a 1-0 loss in Milwaukee on April 3. He walked one batter in his first 18 ⅔ innings.
On a cold night with the wind blowing out, Dylan Moore led off the game with a home run and then had a single in the second to drive in a run. His two-run home run in the fifth accounted for all the runs for the Mariners.
"It was a high pitch count for where he (Lodolo) was in the game, but saying that, when the leadoff hitter touches him up twice, it skews the line a little bit, " Francona explained.
Lodolo was bailed out by the players that the run-starved Reds got back from minor leg injuries before the game in Matt McLain and Austin Hays. McLain walked three times, scored twice, and drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk. Hays contributed an RBI single and a three-run home run in his delayed Reds’ debut.
Still, Lodolo left after 4.2 innings, allowing four runs on five hits, three by Moore and his second walk of the season. He managed to strike out six and threw 90 pitches.
He left the game with a still stellar 2.31 ERA through his first four starts.
"When I was in the zone, he jumped on it," Lodolo said of Moore. "The only pitch I got by him was the first pitch of the game. The change-up I threw him wasn't very good. Other than him, I thought I threw some good pitches."
The effect of the cold, windy night?
"It was actually a lot warmer than I thought it would be," Lodolo said. "The wind blew pretty hard at the beginning of the game, but calmed down."
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