Nick Lodolo shows how bright his future can be as the Reds walk-off the Mets

The most important part of Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Nick Lodolo’s first game in over two months was the looks on the faces of the New York Mets hitters when Lodolo got them to swing and miss.

Lodolo had hitters shaking their helmets. He had hitters sighing. He had hitters furrowing their brows and nodding as if to say, “not bad.” He had hitters watching the replay on the scoreboard as they walked back to the dugout.

As the Reds beat the Mets, 1-0, in front of a crowd of 13,487 at Great American Ball Park, Lodolo showed why he’s at the center of the Reds rebuild. Lodolo, on a limited pitch count in his first game since he strained his back in April, pitched 4 ⅔ shutout innings with eight strikeouts.

Then in the bottom of the ninth inning, designated hitter Mike Moustakas hit a game-winning sacrifice fly on a line drive to center field.

The Reds picked up their second walk-off win in their last three games, but what mattered most was the way Lodolo pitched.

“That’s unbelievable stuff, man," Moustakas said. "From the pop of the glove to the way those guys were swinging at some of that stuff, it looked just incredibly difficult to hit (Lodolo), obviously. It was a lot of fun to play defense behind him. He worked fast, was in the zone a lot. It was just electric stuff he had out there tonight.”

While Lodolo struggled keeping his pitch count down in the first few innings, he immediately established himself against one of the best lineups in baseball.

In the first inning, he got four-time All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor to whiff at a 96 mph sinker that Lodolo located at the top right corner of the strike zone. He ended the inning by getting first baseman Pete Alonso, one of the best power hitters in MLB, to chase a breaking ball in the dirt and fall onto his back knee.

"As a pitcher, you think that helps set the tone for the day," Lodolo said. "I was happy with that.”

Lodolo only threw 4 ⅔ innings because he wasn’t locating his breaking ball early in the game. The Mets worked deep pitch counts, but they only recorded one piece of hard contact against him, which was a single to center field.

Unlike the Reds’ other two rookie starters, Lodolo mixed in three pitches. His fastball consistently had Mets hitters swinging above the strike zone and his breaking ball was his best strikeout pitch.

"He's a lefty with a crossfire (in the) mid-90s with a wipeout slider," Reds left fielder Tommy Pham said. "Then, he has a little bit of deception with his delivery. That's tough. When when he starts throwing a little bit more strikes, not saying that he's not, but just a little bit more, you're going to see him going deeper into the games."

The Mets swung at 11 of Lodolo’s breaking balls, and they whiffed at eight of them. When the pitch was in the strike zone, Lodolo’s breaking ball lived up to its reputation. Lodolo added 10 changeups into the mix, giving the Mets one more pitch to think about.

Lodolo left the game with a runner on base in the fifth because he was at 89 pitches, but it was a long enough outing to show why he’s one of the brightest parts of the Reds’ future.

In a game where he went over his expected pitch count, Lodolo noticed the reactions from the Mets hitters to his best pitches.

"I tried to stay within myself and keep going," Lodolo said. "You’re gathering the information in the at-bat of what you see. At some point, you’re like, ‘Alright, he really didn’t like that so maybe we’ll go back to it,’ either immediately or it’s in your back pocket so maybe later in the at-bat when you really need it to go to it.”

Over 10 weeks ago, before Lodolo went on the IL, he was having a better season than any other Reds starting pitcher. In the last start he made before he went on the IL at the end of April, Lodolo broke the Reds’ 11-game losing streak by shutting down the Cardinals lineup.

He pitched through back soreness during that game, but he was only supposed to miss a couple of starts when he went on the IL. It turned out to be a more serious injury, and he missed the entire months of May and June.

“I never thought it was going to take that long for the lingering (pain) to go away," Lodolo said. "I couldn’t be more happy to be back out there.”

On Tuesday, Lodolo was facing a team with a 50-30 record and throwing to a catcher he had never played with before. Lodolo was throwing so well that neither of those factors mattered much.

New York Mets starting pitcher Max Scherzer, making his first start since May due to an oblique strain, pitched six shutout innings with 11 strikeouts. Scherzer was a finalist for the Cy Young Award last season, and he used his standout fastball command and a devastating slider to keep the Reds off the board.

The Reds bullpen kept the team in the game by recording 13 high-leverage outs, which set up the game-winning hit in the bottom of the ninth. Left fielder Tommy Pham started the inning with a double, Following an intentional walk and another walk by Mets reliever Seth Lugo, Moustakas drove in the winning run.

"Walk-offs are always fun, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do, man," Moustakas said. "We’re not where we want to be by any means. We’ve got a lot of season left and we’ve got to keep working every single day. The great thing about this team is we never give up, never quit and go out there every single night and keep fighting."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Reds defeat Mets in Nick Lodolo's return to rotation