Big leaguers and managers try not to make excuses, but this was another level of challenge that the Reds’ bullpen was facing.
“That’s tough,” Francona said.
“Not an ideal situation,” said closer Emilio Pagán.
“Realistically, it’s maybe not the best,” said right-hander Scott Barlow.
But on Monday, the Reds found a way to scratch together a 3-2 win over the Cubs on a day where Cincinnati shouldn’t have had enough pitching. There will need to be a roster move tomorrow for a Reds team that will have to piece nine innings together again, and an injured list stint is possible for Lodolo.
Those are problems for Tuesday. On Monday night, the Reds won.
“We’re not going to have any excuses moving forward,” Pagán said. “I’m not trying to pump us up, but it speaks to the character of guys we have in this clubhouse. Our front office has done such a good job of bringing in good people who want to play and play hard.”
Because of the innings that the Reds’ bullpen had to carry in Bristol on Sunday, the hope was that Lodolo would deliver another long start. He had been on the best tear of his career, posting a 2.02 ERA and averaging over six innings per start over his last eight outings. The key to his success was finding another gear to his signature breaking ball, which was the catalyst for performances like a complete game shutout in Washington and an 11 strikeout game vs. the Dodgers.
The problem, though, is that Lodolo’s grip of his unique breaking ball has caused blister issues on his index finger that impacted him in 2021, 2024 and now again in 2025. Last year, Lodolo tried to overcompensate for the blister issue, tweaked his grip and went on to suffer a season-ending blister injury on his middle finger.
On Monday, Lodolo felt like he was able to get a bit ahead of it when he felt the blister coming on. Because of his experience, he knew what to look for and signaled for a trainer immediately when he felt something wrong with two outs in the second inning.
“I threw a slider to Turner and I felt my skin ripped on my finger,” Lodolo said. “When I looked down, there was a bubble under with a whole bunch of little fluid… If I would have thrown some more pitches, I wouldn’t have been in a good spot.”
While he got ahead of it, this is still a blister issue that’s been bothering him for years.
“I wish I could figure it out,” Lodolo said.
“I certainly think we’re going to error on the side of caution,” Francona said. “He has dealt with this before… we’ll do the right thing. You can’t just do the right thing when it’s convenient. You’ve got to do it all the time.”
With two outs in the second inning, the most versatile pitcher in baseball sprinted in from the bullpen. Nick Martinez was technically pitching on four days rest, but this wasn’t going to be a normal outing for him.
It turned out that Martinez got warmed up and ready to go in the bullpen twice back on Sunday. That game-like action typically creates a ripple effect that goes into the next day.
Martinez was able to deliver 33 pitches in 2 ⅓ innings on Monday. While he gave up the Cubs’ only two runs of the game, the outs were more important than anything else on his final line.
“To go out and give us what he did tonight, it speaks to the human and him being a super talented player,” Pagán said.
“He has been one of those guys that’s just a warrior,” Barlow said. “Willing to do anything to help the team at all times.”It’s not just that Martinez threw 33 pitches the day after he warmed up twice.
His most recent was last week back when he was a full-fledged starting pitcher. Martinez was throwing the ball well. But since relief prices were so high on the trade market, the Reds pitvoted. They dealt for starter Zack Littell, and Martinez moved to the bullpen on the fly.
But before he even got a chance to make a true appearance as a reliever, Martinez had to provide the Reds the bulk of that game’s innings again. If Lodolo does land on the IL, then Martinez will probably just go back into the rotation again.
This level of versatility is very rare.
“That’s the Shohei Ohtani of just pitching,” Wade Miley said. “Whenever you need him, he’s ready.”
Martinez got the Reds through the fifth inning. Then, Francona brought in a pitcher who was about to throw for the sixth time in eight days.
“I don’t know if people realize that doesn’t happen very often,” Francona said.
Pitching three times out of four days isn’t very common, let along doing that back-to-back.
At the start of the day, Barlow was optimistic that he’d be able to pitch on Monday night.
“I woke up feeling pretty good,” Barlow said. “In catch play, I was like, wow, I feel really good.”
The state of a taxed Reds bullpen was in the back of his mind as well.
“We’re going through it a bit,” Barlow said. “But each guy down there is itching to get the ball whether or not they’ve pitched the night before or they’ve been used a lot in multiple innings. That’s a sign of a good bullpen.”
Just getting a few outs or facing three batters would have been an accomplishment for Barlow. Instead, he threw two scoreless innings with four strikeouts.
“We’ve had the attitude of bring it on,” Barlow said. “Each guy down there loves a challenge.”
Once the Reds made it through Barlow’s sixth inning, they were in pretty good shape. Graham Ashcraft, Tony Santillan and Emilio Pagán have all also been pitching a ton, but they were all available and have been the Reds’ go-to trio in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings all season. In order, they kept the Cubs scoreless as the Reds picked up the win.
Just like the mess from Bristol spilled into Monday’s game, what the bullpen was required to do on Monday will spill into Tuesday. This bullpen is taking one punch after another. The Reds will make a roster move, which will give this team a long relief option and some insurance.
Lodolo has been consistently leading the Reds to wins, and having him miss any amount of time takes away one of the Reds’ best players. Francona said before Monday’s game that Hunter Greene needed to make at least one more rehab start, and Greene is scheduled to throw 80-plus pitches on Friday.
If Lodolo is out and Martinez has to slide back to the rotation on a short-term basis, then the Reds won’t have the late-game weapon in Martinez that the front office wanted to be this team’s big bullpen addition at the trade deadline.
Back in 2023, the Reds’ bullpen ultimately just ran out of gas and evaporated in September. The 2025 Reds can’t afford to have a similar fate. One of the keys to the second half of the season might be what unproven rookie relievers and prospects like Luis Mey, Lyon Richardson, Connor Phillips and Zack Maxwell can give the Reds.
But those are problems for tomorrow. Francona pushed his chips into the center of the table to win Monday’s game. And it was a heck of a win.
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