Cincinnati left-hander Nick Lodolo will try to pick up his first home win since late March when the Reds take on the National League Central-leading Chicago Cubs in the rubber game of their three-game series on Sunday afternoon.
Lodolo (4-4, 3.22 ERA) has drastic home/road splits this season, going just 1-2 with a 6.33 ERA in four home starts compared with a 3-2 record and a glossy 1.45 ERA in six road starts. His lone home win came in the second game of the season, 3-2 over the San Francisco Giants on March 29.
Home runs have played a big part in Lodolo’s home struggles. The sinker-baller has allowed five homers in just 21 1/3 innings at Great American Ball Park, compared with one home run in 37 1/3 innings on the road.
Lodolo is 2-2 with a 5.27 ERA in five career starts against the Cubs. He’ll be opposed by right-hander Ben Brown (3-3, 5.44), who is 0-2 with an 8.00 ERA in two career starts against Cincinnati.
Chicago, which leads the majors in runs (310), put up 11 over the final three innings to rally for a 13-6 win in the series opener on Friday night. Center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong led the way with two home runs, including a grand slam off the right field foul pole, to highlight a six-run seventh inning. He drove in six runs.
Cincinnati evened the series with a 6-4 victory on Saturday afternoon, with shortstop Elly De La Cruz going 2-for-3 — including a two-run homer in the first inning — and driving in four runs to go with his 17th stolen base.
“He’s instant runs,” Reds manager Terry Francona said when asked what De La Cruz means to his lineup. “Other teams hit a lot of home runs. That’s not necessarily how we’re built.”
De La Cruz’s home run, off Cubs starter Colin Rea into the right field bleachers, opened the scoring and was his ninth homer of the season. It also helped the Reds move on quickly mentally from their late meltdown in Friday night’s loss.
“It’s nice to score first and then kinda tack on a little bit because you know they’re going to (score). … I mean, they’re dangerous offensively,” Francona said.
The Cubs made Saturday’s game interesting in the ninth against closer Emilio Pagan when Carson Kelly led off with a home run off the left field foul pole to make the score 6-4, and third baseman Matt Shaw lined a double to left one out later. But Pagan bounced back to strike out Ian Happ and got Kyle Tucker to fly out to end the game.
“We got the tying run up there with Kyle Tucker. I was not going to complain about that,” Chicago manager Craig Counsell said. “If we could (get) the tying run with Tucker up there, we’d take that situation. So we gave it a shot, and (Pagan) made some nice pitches to both guys.”
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for Chicago, which leads the NL Central by two games over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cubs have won six of their past eight games and will try for their fourth consecutive series win on Sunday.
–Field Level Media
