Rain delayed the Major League debut of Nick Lodolo, but after some waiting things got underway. The Reds perhaps wish that they didn’t as Lodolo struggled in an area that he normally doesn’t and Cleveland took advantage of it with the Guardians taking home a 2-game sweep by a final score of 7-3 on Wednesday afternoon.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleveland Guardians (4-2) | 7 | 13 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (2-4) | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| W: Morgan (1-0) L: Lodolo (0-1) |
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| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Offense
Cincinnati seemed to be threatening in the 2nd inning after Kyle Farmer was hit by a pitch and Brandon Drury doubled off of the center field wall, but Farmer was sent home on the play and Cleveland got the throw home ahead of Farmer by about five feet for an easy tag at the plate to end the threat and the inning. The offense was quiet after that until a 2-out solo home run from Jake Fraley that landed in the right field seats 415 feet from the plate and got the Reds on the board, making it a 6-1 game.
After two quick outs to begin the 8th inning, Cincinnati got a little bit of a rally going. Tyler Naquin doubled down the left field line and then scored when Tyler Stephenson homered into the first row of seats in right center – his second home run of the year – to make it a 7-3 ballgame. That was all they’d get, though and that would be the final score.
The Pitching
Nick Lodolo’s 1st inning in the big leagues saw him give up two singles, but also strike out Steven Kwan (who struck out for the first time in nearly 80 plate appearances dating back to last season in Triple-A) and Franmil Reyes. The 2nd inning was an entirely different. Known for his control and ability to pound the strikezone, Lodolo’s control evaded him as he hit two batters and walked three in the inning, but escaped by allowing just two earned runs after a diving grab by Jake Fraley in center ended the inning with the bases loaded. Cleveland added to their lead in the next inning with Owen Miller homered into the left field seats, making it 3-0. In the 4th a leadoff single came around to score on a Jose Ramirez 2-run homer that made it 5-0 for the Guardians. That would be the final inning for Lodolo, who finished with the following line: 4IP, 7 hits, 5 earned runs, 3 walks, 2 hit batters, and 4 strikeouts.
Buck Farmer took over for Cincinnati in the 5th inning and gave up a solo homer to Oscar Mercado that made it 6-0. He pitched a scoreless 6th inning before Alexis Diaz took over in the 7th. Diaz threw 1.1 shutout innings before Dauri Moreta took over with one out in the top of the 8th. After striking out Amed Rosario he gave up a home run on a 98 MPH just out of the top of the zone to Owen Miller – his second of the day – to make it 7-1.
The Key Moment of the Game
In the 4th inning Jose Ramirez smacked a 2-run homer that made it 5-0 and essentially put the game away on the day.
Notes Worth Noting
Nick Lodolo walked three batters in a game for only the second time in his professional career. The other time that it happened was on May 12th of 2021 when he walked four batters in 3.1 innings against Montgomery while he was pitching in Double-A. The next time out he allowed three base runners in 7.1 innings with 11 strikeouts and didn’t walk four batters combined until he was making his 8th start to follow the game in Montgomery.
The offense didn’t draw a single walk in the game but did strike out 12 times in the game.
The attendance for the day was 10,976. Guess a lot of people went somewhere else.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Los Angeles Dodgers
Thursday April 14th, 10:10pm ET
Reiver Sanmartin vs Walker Buehler
David Bell & the Reds current pitching coach must have forgotten to look at the scouting report for the Cleveland Indians, er Guardians! Their No. 3 hitter (Jose Ramirez) went 3 for 5 in Game 1 with 6 RBIs and 3 for 4 in Game 2 with 3 RBIs. Meanwhile the No. 4 hitter (DH) went 0 for the series! Maybe pitch around Ramirez? For the mathematically challenged who view this site, Ramirez drove in over HALF of the 17 runs scored by Cleveland!
Good info, Dennis. I am getting mighty tired of talking about this but yet another David Bell issue. Also, after yesterday’s Phil Castellini’s viral vomit, it was actually David Bell who got the most negative opinions about his decisions during the opening game. Of course, he got a few defenders, so I believe his average was 2/13 — approximately the BA of most of the Reds lineup at this point…
I doubt it was their strategy to throw about 12 thigh-high fatties to Cleveland hitters, but that is what the pitchers did.
I will chalk it up to Lodolo’s being jacked up a bit on adrenaline, and I’ll give him a break. The bullpen was middling today but at least they each went more than 1 inning with only one walk.
This team has too many automatic outs, two of which are India and Votto, on top of the guys who we already knew were automatic outs.
Agree, Reds allowed Olsen to go 8 for 14 n Atlanta and now let Rameriz have a career in Cincy.
Again, u can invest in all kinds of new cyber metrics and focus on spin rates and specific pitching training, but a lot of the game still comes back to good ole fashion common sense. Pitchers have to get the ball out of the middle of the plate; it doesn’t matter how hard you throw. Maybe start working on the change up in A ball instead waiting until u make it to AAA and have problems getting more advanced hitters out? See the opposing pitcher in trouble, maybe take a pitch instead of popping up the first strike he’s thrown to the last 4 hitters?
Just amazing to me how often young Reds players are NOT fundamentally sound when they get a chance to show what they have at the ML level. Can understand Lodolo being nervous and that he’s looked very good in the past. Then again, I didn’t see him throw one change up either
I’m not too worried about Lodolo, hopefully he gets another start before Minor comes back. He probably needs some time in AAA. I think he had 6 innings last year in AAA. He’ll be back up this year I’m sure, and hopefully it’s because he is domination AAA batters.
I like the early returns from Drury, Fraley. Both seem to be good acquisitions, hopefully we get Solano back soon.
His talent is apparent. I’m not worried at all.
Minor sure was impressive in his AAA start yesterday. Can’t wait til he’s up with the Reds now! :-O
Solano is traveling with the team to LA so thats very good . Conventional wisdom would be solano activated and Drury to AAA. But, Ive seen enough from Aquino. DFA Aquino when Solano is activated. Reds have back to back lefties in LA sat/Sun with Urias and Heaney.
Id go pham senzel Solano OF
Drury 3b and stephenson DH those days
Drury is one of the best 28 for now
Aquino is not
I agree, I am tired of watching Aquino strike out, release him, 2019 is a long time ago.
Slider away
Sad but Aquino just can’t hit MLB pitching. He looks lost and is barely able to make contact. And I’m sure he’s lost whatever confidence he ever had. The Reds need to option him out or release him. I sincerely doubt he has much trade value at this point.
Drury has been impressive at bat, ok in the field. I thought he was slow to react to a ball hit past him down the line. I was looking right down the 3rd base line and he seemed to get a slow read. I think he should have gotten to it – at least knocked it down. But even at that, he’s better than Moose.
The Mouse is a sunk cost like Shogo. He should be limited to D Hing. Drury should be given a real chance at third. Enough time for Aquino; too many strikeouts. Bring up Friedl. The Reds need the return of Schrock.
At least Santillan will be well rested if the Reds ever find themselves in another winnable game. And his arm will be in terrific shape in August when the games really start mattering.
Touche
Exactly. Last night was the same Bell stupidity as last year. At least the better bullpen pitchers will be all nice and rested up when they’re 20 games under 500.
Mattering?
Nothing shows the disparity between the Dodgers versus the Reds than the starters named for tomorrows game Reiver Sanmartin versus Walker Buehler.
The size of the crowd today made me smile. Would have loved to be a fly on the wall in the Castellini sweet.
Sparse doesn’t do it’s eh?
Phil, resign
It was a mid-week day game in pouring rain that was delayed nearly an hour. How many people did you expect to be there. I mean, it’s fine to be upset with the ownership, but let’s not pretend like today’s attendance was a commentary on them. LOL
No way to know either way. Tickets could have been sold. People could have stayed home because of the rain, and/or there’s nothing urgent about seeing this team, six games in. No way ever to know, though.
LOL
So, Bob C. said “Where you gonna go?”! I’ll tell you where the Reds fans are NOT gonna go when they are in last place in the NL Central Division at the end of April behind the AAA Pirates! They are NOT gonna go to GABP!
To be fair…..the Reds were in contention entering September last year and nobody came. Despite low attendance the year before the Reds took a shot with Castellanos, Gray, Moose, Miley, Shogo, etc and it didn’t work, but they did make an effort.
Make no mistake. Owning the Reds is a tough gig. Everything is geared financially into making the Reds one of the punching bags for the big boys and our small market fans know that and only show up occasionally.
Fans didn’t come because that team was going nowhere last year even if they made the playoffs. Teams figured them out by starting lefties against them . Front office new the bullpen lost them about 30 games and still waited until the deadline to make a move. Give Winker away with Suarez and they should have given Moose away instead of Suarez. Moose can’t hit ,run or field. Put the product on the field and fans will come. Giving out worse contracts than the Jacksonville Jaguars. Castellinis are bumbling fools who have no idea how to run a team. All they know how to do is tear teams down and rebuild. It’s only going to get uglier heading out West and the first half schedule is brutal.
It’s not even tearing the team apart. It’s ruling by fiat, by Royal decree, to reduce costs.
Kralling (to the End) is the one who must tear it apart and use paste to put it back together again. And I don’t even think old Nick is the type of kid who ate the paste.
How do you think the ball players feel about ownership disparaging the fans?
In what could have been a very positive Home Opening series, coming off the successful series in Atlanta, and the debut of Hunter Greene, ownership inserted itself and took over the dialogue of basebsll in Cincinnati. Then came the Cleveland beat down.
This is ineptitude. The product on the field proves it.
They can’t Moose away for the very reasons you stated. Geno looks like Arenado compared to Moose
Just not buying that kool aid about reds owners can’t afford to compete. I see it as a failure of management ownership to provide a winner within the resources they have, including a bunch of rich co- owners and over $100 million dollars of media revenue sharing.
The reds could hire a proven, winning baseball exec team and follow a plan. They haven’t done this, ever. Bob has always meddled in baseball personnel decisions which is well known. He has always hired yes men, including his apparently dense (unqualified son?).
Reds have spent enough money in many years but not wisely. That’s on the owners, period. It’s a competence issue, not a lack of resources issue. Look at the brewers for a good example. Always competing, always winning. Despite missing on Yelich, they are still trying with a great GM.
We all saw how the Castellini family thinks about it’s obligation and responsibility to field a winner. And name me one other mlb team that would make Krall and Phil C as the public spokespersons?
Only one team per year wins the WS, and, realistically, only a handful more are viewed as having a legitimate shot. The Reds were better and more exciting to watch last year than most people predicted, and still there were lots of sparse crowds. So this year people aren’t going because of the off-season moves? I don’t know whether the average fan weights that heavily into their decision about buying a ticket, but maybe they do. By the way: “giving away” Moose in place of Suarez might not have flown. Trades are two-way transactions.
Phil. Resign. .
The broadcast team farce about the benefits of ‘grinders,’ or, as Larkin promotes, ‘ball players,’ doesn’t offset the lost of 85-100 HRs. The Braves have four guys with 30-plus HRs last year and a guy coming back, Ronald Acuna, who may be the best of them all (and has hit 49 in one season. Plus several more such as Swanson who’s good for up to 20.
Aristides Acquino? Brandon Drury? Colin Moran?
That’s insulting, Phil, Bob. Your 2022 marketing has collapsed after six games. Just resign.
In ownerships defense Doug, there would have been 10.976 in attendance if we had an outfield of Aaron, Mantle , and Clemente. It was a cool rainy Wednesday in Cincinnati. I am sure more fans were thinking about going but they didn’t want to get their hair wet.
And that is the challenge of being a reds owner. what is the motivation for the ownership to “go all in” if it won’t reap any benefit at the ticket gates?
They WILL reap the benefit at the gate if they win. We’ve got plenty of proof of that. Sure, it may not happen on a day like Wednesday when it’s a mid-April rainy day game, but on the season? Yeah, they’ll reap benefits from that. It’s why the team averaged a lot more ticket sales in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 than they have in other years – because they won and had expectations to win. There’s a very clear correlation to increased attendance following a season in which the team wins.
In the 4 games which Mahle has not pitched, the Reds’ starting rotation has an ERA of 8.62
That’s not going to win too many games.
I know nobody wants to hear this, and I have always been the one to say service time shouldn’t matter because the team should invest in resigning it’s own players they developed that hit the market no matter the cost. That being said, we all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Reds will never resign Greene or Lodolo. So if we want an extra year of watching them, the Reds will need to move them down to the minors for a few weeks. This year seems like a waste of a year to keep them up when they are not even where they are not a finished product and the Reds are destined for last place. If I was owner I would keep them up and plan on resigning them but with Bob C as owner I am selfishly hoping they go back to the minors so we get an extra year of watching them pitch in Cincy