Cincinnati Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo continued to dominate outmatched minor league batters this week.
Lodolo, who was making the second start of his rehab assignment, tossed 3.0 scoreless, hitless innings and six strikeouts with Triple-A Chattanooga on Tuesday. The southpaw's previous start was with the Arizona Complex League Reds on Aug. 11, when he struck out four in 2.0 more scoreless frames.
Through 5.0 innings of work down in the minors, Lodolo has a 0.00 ERA, 0.600 WHIP and 18.0 strikeouts per nine innings.
Lodolo has not appeared in the big leagues since May 6, initially hitting the 15-day injured list on May 14 with left calf tendinosis. A few days later, an MRI showed that Lodolo had suffered a stress fracture in his tibia.
The Reds moved Lodolo to the 60-day injured list on June 3, meaning he has technically been eligible to return to Cincinnati for over two weeks.
The lefty wore a boot until mid-July, though, and he didn't toss his first bullpen session until August.
Before he went down with his lower leg injury, Lodolo was 2-1 with a 6.29 ERA, 1.748 WHIP and 12.3 strikeouts per nine innings through seven starts with the Reds. His shaky numbers can mostly be attributed to back-to-back rough starts against the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers in April, as his ERA drops to a much more palatable 3.51 without them.
Lodolo was the top-ranked player in Cincinnati's farm system at the end of 2021, according to MLB Pipeline, in addition to being the No. 7 left-handed pitcher and No. 59 overall prospect in all of baseball at the time. Lodolo finished sixth in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2022, going 4-7 with a 3.66 ERA, 1.248 WHIP and 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings.
If Lodolo can get back to that kind of production – or keep up the dominance he's putting on display in the minors – the Reds could be getting a major boost to their rotation with the stretch run right around the corner.
Lodolo's exact timeline still remains up in the air, but right-hander Hunter Greene seemingly had his final rehab start Tuesday with Triple-A Louisville. The Reds' other former top pitching prospect is therefore expected to jump back into the major league rotation in the near future, and Lodolo likely won't be far behind.
The Reds are currently sitting at 63-59, which puts them in a three-way tie for third in the race for the three NL Wild Card spots. A 4-10 start to August has knocked Cincinnati back a fair share, cutting the team's postseason odds to 27.8%, per FanGraphs.
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