Nick Lodolo shuts out Washington Nationals, Reds avoid sweep
Cincinnati Reds LHP Nick Lodolo (8-6, 3.08 ERA) pitched a 4-hitter to beat the Nationals and avert a sweep for the Reds July 23.
Elly De La Cruz certainly looks well-equipped for a playoff race.
De La Cruz enjoyed a clutch moment in the seventh inning against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 26, driving in two runs on a bloop, bases-loaded, two-out single. That hit lifted the Cincinnati Reds over the Rays, 6-2, on a night at Great American Ball Park when hits were in short supply for both clubs.
The victory lifted the Reds to 55-50, equaling the five-games-over-.500 high-water mark they’d already achieved once in 2025. Cincinnati will enter the July 27 series finale against Tampa Bay with the series win in-hand and no worse than one game back in the race for the No. 3 Wild Card spot in the National League.
Graham Ashcraft was the winning pitcher for the Reds. Andrew Abbott started the game and allowed one run in six innings as his ERA dropped to from 2.13 to 2.09. Abbott pitched six innings and allowed one run on two hits.
Emilio Pagán continued his career-best campaign with a 1-2-3 ninth inning that included a diving catch in left field by Austin Hays.
A pitchers’ duel through five innings, both clubs started to gain traction offensively in the sixth.
Yandy Diaz opened the scoring with a solo home run to left-center field to lead off the sixth. The Reds, who sported blue throwback-style caps with a National Baseball Hall of Fame patch in honor of this weekend’s induction festivities, came back to take the lead in the bottom of the inning when a hard-hit Hays grounder slid under the glove of Rays’ shortstop Taylor Walls.
Tampa Bay knotted the game in controversial fashion in its next at-bat. Graham Ashcraft looked to have hit the strike zone for a would-be called third strike against the Rays’ Josh Lowe, but home plate umpire Willie Traynor called the offering a ball.
The next pitch from Ashcraft was lined into left field for a game-tying single. Reds manager Terry Francona then appeared to argue with Traynor from the dugout and was ejected. Francona came out to the field to continue the dispute and crew chief Todd Tichenor diffused the exchange.
Then, De La Cruz delivered his game-winning hit on a 2-2 count. T.J. Friedl and Matt McLain tacked on more insurance runs in the eighth inning. Friedl hit a dribbler of a single that extended past Lowe, who entered the game at shortstop. A McLain single made it 6-2.