Nick Lodolo Takes Major Step With New Grip in Attempt to Solve Blister Issues

Nick Lodolo has dealt with his fair share of injuries throughout his career, but one of the more frustrating issues has been something that may seem relatively minor: blisters.

The left-hander has battled blister issues that have impacted his ability to stay on the mound, and now he's trying something different in hopes of putting the problem behind him. Lodolo is changing the grip on one of his pitches, a significant adjustment considering how important feel and consistency are for any pitcher.

He threw three innings of live batting practice on Thursday afternoon and felt good.

"3 ups, I think I threw like 50 pitches," Lodolo told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "Definitely a win for the day. I don't know what is next. Hopefully rehab, but we will figure that out."

"It feels good. I threw a good amount of them. It's definitely something I am excited about and we will see how it plays."

Lodolo was asked how different and hard it is to switch grips on a breaking ball in the middle of the season.

"We will see for sure. If you would have asked me that like a week ago, I would have told you it was huge. I feel a lot better with it now that I've kept throwing it. It's not an earth shattering difference, but there is definitely a small tweak there and hopefully it sets me up to be better."

The biggest hurdle with any grip change is getting comfortable enough with it to trust the pitch in a game. While Lodolo admits the adjustment doesn't feel nearly as drastic as it did initially, getting to the point where he can consistently execute it is what matters most.

"Being comfortable is the number one thing. Can you throw it for a strike? Can the ball spin out of your hand correctly? It's got to sit comfortably in your hand to have a chance. You're not going to go out and rip something you're not comfortable with."

Lodolo was happy with how many strikes he threw with the new pitch, but recognizes live batting practice is much different than a game.

"I threw a lot of them for strikes. I was really happy about that, but like I said, live BP is BP versus a game."

Lodolo is 3-2 with an ERA of 4.60 on the season in 12 starts. He's walked 27 and struck out 50 in his 62 2/3 innings of work.

The breaking ball has always been an important pitch for him and it'll be interesting to see how the new grip works in game action.

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