Lodolo can't find curve in Reds' loss to Red Sox

CINCINNATI -- When Nick Lodolo’s big, sweeping curveball is on point, the Reds' rookie starting pitcher can get swings and misses to his heart’s content and dominate hitters. When it’s not, Lodolo is more prone to hitting batters with the pitch or making a mistake.

Sometimes the difference is miniscule, but it was enough to force Lodolo to labor his way through five innings against the Red Sox as the Reds were handed a 5-3 loss on Tuesday at Great American Ball Park. Cincinnati has dropped 10 of its last 12 games.

Lodolo gave up three earned runs and three hits -- including a pair of home runs -- with three walks, three hit batters and seven strikeouts.

“There’s no question I didn’t have the best command of the zone. I was falling behind guys,” Lodolo said. “Was just losing my curveball a little bit. But at the end of the day, I tried to keep us in it. I think it honestly could’ve gone sideways a little bit more. Overall, just wasn’t the best.”

Lodolo, who came in with no walks and 22 strikeouts in his previous two starts and one walk in his last three, issued all three of his walks before allowing his first Boston hit as he labored from the beginning.

Opening the top of the second inning, Lodolo hit Rob Refsnyder on the leg with an 0-2 curveball and walked the next batter, Kiké Hernández. He avoided more trouble by getting a Yu Chang double play and striking out Connor Wong.

“We've seen that a couple times, where it's breaking so much that he can't quite get a feel for where to start it out because it just sweeps so much. And that led to some of the hit-by-pitches,” Reds manager David Bell said. “Just kind of one of those starts where he did what he had to do to kind of get through five and was pretty good without his best stuff.”

A two-out walk to Xander Bogaerts in the third inning proved costly. J.D. Martinez followed with a drive to deep center field, where Nick Senzel crashed into the wall while missing the catch. Martinez had an RBI triple while Senzel came up injured on the play and was later diagnosed with a broken left toe.

Cincinnati evened the game in the bottom of the third on TJ Friedl’s leadoff homer to right field off Red Sox rookie pitcher Brayan Bello. But in the away half of the fourth inning, Refsnyder slugged an 0-2 fastball into the second deck of the left-field seats for his own leadoff homer and the lead.

Lodolo followed by hitting Hernández on the back foot with another curveball, and then hit Chang on the front leg with the same pitch. Again, he escaped with a strikeout and double play.

“You’re playing with a game of inches there. Go look at how many strikeouts I’ve had with balls, a couple of inches from the back foot,” said Lodolo, who is tied for the Major League lead with 18 hit batters in only 92 1/3 innings. “You can’t do anything about it. I’m still going to keep throwing it.”

Of the 33 curveballs Lodolo threw in the game, Boston took only seven swings but whiffed four times. Five more were called for strikes. But former teammate Tommy Pham, who was traded to the Red Sox on Aug. 1, was impressed with the pitcher’s effectiveness. Pham was 0-for-3 vs. Lodolo with a strikeout and grounded into the double play that ended the fourth inning.

“I wish I would have stood in [against] Lodolo when he was throwing bullpens, so I could get some free looks. He’s good. I’m a big fan of him,” Pham said before the game.

With two outs in the fifth, Martinez lifted a 1-0 Lodolo fastball to right-center field for a solo homer that gave Boston a 3-1 lead.

“The one thing that stood out to me, personally, that I wished I could have back was the homer to Martinez in the fifth. Just a bad pitch, honestly, from me,” Lodolo said. “If I’m going to miss, I’ve got to know where to miss with that guy.”

Over his last seven starts, Lodolo is 1-3 with a 2.96 ERA, nine walks and 56 strikeouts over 45 2/3 innings. He is 4-7 with a 3.90 ERA in 17 starts overall, and his 120 strikeouts are second on the club.