Starter Spotlight: Unload On Lodolo

8-22-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

Short road trip and back at PNC, the Pirates will host the Reds and southpaw Nick Lodolo, who tossed 7 frames of 1-run ball during Cincinnati’s last trek to Pittsburgh but has struggled since that strong outing.

In Lodolo’s last 9 games, he is 1-3 with a 7.15 ERA through 45.1 innings pitched. He’s given up 4 or more runs five times in that stretch and allowed 8 runs twice – including his last start where he last just 2.1 innings against the Kansas City Royals, his shortest outing this season.

In that appearance, Lodolo utilized his fastball/curve/changeup/sinker arsenal but he got zero whiffs on the change/sinker and got HAMMERED against all 4 offerings – with 4 of the 8 hits allowed having an exit velocity of greater than 102 MPH.

Compare that to 18 whiffs against the Pirates in that June 18th start where the Bucs managed just 4 batted ball events with 100+ MPH exit velocity. What do you see?

His velocity dropped on all of his pitches with the exception of his changeup, which risks losing its effectiveness without a large gap in velocity between it and the fastballs.

He’s also seen a noticeable drop in spin rate, which could result in loss of control and effectiveness against hitters.

Basically, he’s not the same pitcher the Pirates faced two months ago. While much of the damage has come against him at home (6.09 ERA compared to 3.05 ERA in nearly the same amount of innings), he’s a less ominous opponent this time around.

Bucs bats will need to keep their eye level fixed. Lodolo works up with heat and down with the secondaries. Look for hanging pitches and be ready to attack.

Let’s Go Bucs!