Rhett

Lowder

Lowder gave up one hit, walked five and struck out four. He threw 70 pitches in what was his first start since he went on the injured list for shoulder pain in early May. It was a bit of a mixed bag considering he walked five batters and was only able to complete three innings. He has a 5.01 ERA. Lowder is lined up to face the Diamondbacks at home next weekend.

As anticipated, Lowder will make his return to the Reds’ rotation on Sunday against the Cardinals. He has been shelved since May 13 due to pain in his pitching shoulder. The 24-year-old hurler holds an uninspiring 5.40 ERA, 1.41 WHIP and a 27/18 K/BB ratio over 38 1/3 innings in eight starts for the Reds this season.

Lowder gets the ball this weekend after striking out eight and allowing three runs over five innings during his final minor league rehab start for Triple-A Louisville on Tuesday. The 24-year-old former top pitching prospect posted a serviceable 5.40 ERA across eight starts this season before hitting the injured list with a shoulder issue back on May 13.

Lowder gave up six hits and didn’t hand out a free pass, throwing 70 pitches (50 strikes) over five frames. The 24-year-old averaged 94.1 mph on his sinker and 94.5 mph on his four-seam fastball, which is an extremely encouraging sign. He’s on track to return to Cincinnati’s rotation for a road start against the Cardinals on Sunday.

Lowder will make a minor league rehab start for Triple-A Louisville next week. The 24-year-old rookie could rejoin Cincinnati’s rotation shortly afterwards since he wasn’t shut down from throwing for very long after hitting the injured list with shoulder pain back on May 13. He should be ready to return to the Reds rotation by mid-June.

Six days after leaving his start against the Cubs, Lowder finally lands on the IL. The Reds seem optimistic that he won’t be out for long. Lowder has a 5.40 ERA in eight starts this season, though he was at 3.18 before the last two of those.

Francona didn’t discuss the results of the right-hander’s MRI results though he did note that Lowder will continue to throw, just “not quite off the mound yet”. Based on that, you’d assume that the results were encouraging and didn’t show any structural damage. Either way he’ll miss at least a couple of weeks though.

Reds’ manager Terry Francona described it as more of a clicking noise that Lowder’s shoulder was making during Thursday’s start and noted that the 24-year-old hurler thought that he could stay in the game and pitch through it. They’ll know more after getting the results of the MRI, but it seems likely that Lowder will be ticketed for the injured list.

Bummer. At least the Reds are getting Nick Lodolo back on Tuesday, but they might need to again turn to Chase Petty if Lowder lands on the IL, as seems likely. Lowder ended up being charged with three runs in three-plus innings today against the Cubs, as both guys he left on in the fourth came around to score.

Lowder got a visit from the trainer after throwing a pitch to Michael Busch and left for the dugout a couple of minutes later without trying any warmup pitches. Connor Phillips replaced him. Lowder was charged with one run over the first three innings and had two men on base with none out in the fourth when he exited.