Cincinnati sends Nick Lodolo to the mound tonight against Philadelphia, with both teams trying to steady themselves in a matchup that says as much about survival as it does about momentum. The Reds are 24-23 but have gone 4-12 over their last 16 games, while the Phillies come in at 15-4 under Don Mattingly after a jarring turnaround from a 9-19 start.
The Reds need this one because the skid has been severe enough to change the feel of their season. They have won only one of their past five series, are hitting.226 as a team and carry a 4.81 ERA on the mound. Elly De La Cruz has helped keep them afloat with a.302 batting average, 11 homers and 31 RBIs, but the rest of the lineup has not matched that pace, and Lodolo has not been sharp enough to cover the gap. He has allowed nine earned runs in 9.1 innings, and Phillies hitters have managed a.287 average over 80 at-bats against him.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, is trying to turn a rescue job into a push. The club was 9-19 before its recent run and has climbed back above.500, even if it still sits eight games behind the Braves in the division. The Phillies have done it with enough offense to matter, led by Kyle Schwarber’s 20 homers through 47 games, and with a staff that has a 4.22 ERA, which is good enough to keep them in games while the lineup does the heavy lifting.
That is where Andrew Painter enters tonight, and the numbers around him are more uneven than the record suggests. He is 1-4 with a 6.21 ERA and a 1.59 WHIP, and he has allowed four or more earned runs in three of his past seven starts. The Phillies have lost his past six starts, though in four of them he allowed three or fewer earned runs, a split that shows how little margin has existed around him.
For Cincinnati, the assignment is simple: stop the slide before it defines the month. For Philadelphia, it is to keep the turnaround from slipping by giving Painter enough support to survive another start that has more pressure on it than his record alone would suggest.
