Lodolo cruises through 7 innings for 5th straight win, Espinal homers in Reds' 2-1 win over Pirates

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Nick Lodolo allowed one run in seven innings to win a fifth straight start, Santiago Espinal hit a two-run homer and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1 on Tuesday night.

Lodolo (8-2) struck out eight without issuing a walk and gave up four hits. The left-hander has been tagged for seven runs in 30 1/3 innings in five starts since May 27.

“I thought, overall, I just felt in control,” Lodolo said. "I just want to go out there and give us a good chance to win. ... The goal is for me to go out there and get myself in position to win. So, tonight was definitely a good one.

“I'm really just five days at a time. I feel like you start looking ahead, you never know. I just have to stay present and do it again in five days.”

Espinal put the Reds ahead in the fifth inning, driving a fastball from Bailey Falter just over a leaping Bryan Reynolds at the wall and 376 feet into the left field bleachers.

Alexis Díaz struck out one in a perfect ninth inning for his 16th save.

Falter (3-5) surrendered two runs on seven hits, going seven innings with three strikeouts and two walks.

“Felt good to go out there and provide for the team, especially after my last two starts,” said Falter, who had allowed eight runs in eight combined innings his previous two outings. “Those guys having been working for me for a really long time.”

Lodolo retired 11 in a row until Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a solo home run with one out in the seventh inning, sending a 2-2 curveball 382 feet to left.

“They made him work for it, for sure, in that seventh,” Reds manager David Bell said. “A pretty hot night. If it wasn't for that inning, maybe it's one of those nights he can go even deeper than that. But getting us through seven on a day like that, all right-handed lineup, good hitters, that's about as good as it gets.”

Andrew McCutchen hit a two-out single ahead of a double down the left-field line from Reynolds in the third. Lodolo struck out Connor Joe to strand them in scoring position and keep Pittsburgh from taking an early lead.

“He sure has been good,” Bell said of Lodolo. “Tonight, in command all night. Threw pitches for strikes. Can get outs with all three of those pitches. That's pretty tough. He's just finding ways to get better. He had it all working tonight, though.”

Reynolds was 2 for 4, extending his hit streak to 16 games with a swinging bunt in the first. He came close to tying the score in the eighth, sending a sharp line drive off Fernando Cruz to center with one out and McCutchen on first.

Stuart Fairchild tracked it for an overhead catch just shy of the wall and McCutchen, running past second base, was thrown out at first for an inning-ending double play.

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RHP Hunter Greene (5-2, 3.61 ERA) will look to win sixth straight decision for the Reds when he takes the mound Wednesday to close the series opposite Pirates RHP Mitch Keller (8-4, 3.36). Greene is 5-0 in nine starts since allowing four runs in a 7-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on April 22; Keller is 6-1 dating to May 6, but gave up four runs in a 4-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals his last time out on June 13.

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Pittsburgh Pirates' Ke'Bryan Hayes rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run off Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Nick Lodolo (40) during the seventh inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Bailey Falter, right, beats Cincinnati Reds' Jake Fraley to first for the out during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Cincinnati Reds' Santiago Espinal, left, celebrates with Spencer Steer (7) after getting the final out of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. The Reds won 2-1. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Ke'Bryan Hayes hits a solo home run off Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Nick Lodolo during the seventh inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Cincinnati Reds left fielder Spencer Steer leaps for but can't come down with a ball hit for a solo home run by Pittsburgh Pirates' Ke'Bryan Hayes during the seventh inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Ke'Bryan Hayes (13) rounds third base to greetings from third base coach Mike Rabelo after hitting a solo home run off Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Nick Lodolo during the seventh inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder Bryan Reynolds can't make the catch on a two-run home run by Cincinnati Reds' Santiago Espinal during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Cincinnati Reds' Santiago Espinal, right, celebrates with Luke Maile (22) as he returns to the dugout after hitting a two-run home run off Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Bailey Falter during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Bailey Falter delivers to a Cincinnati Reds batter during the first inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Cincinnati Reds' Santiago Espinal hits a two-run home run off Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Bailey Falter during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Nick Lodolo delivers during the first inning of the team's baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden and his Republican rival, Donald Trump, will meet for a debate on Thursday that offers an unparalleled opportunity for both candidates to try to reshape the political narrative.

Biden, the Democratic incumbent, gets the chance to reassure voters that, at 81, he’s capable of guiding the U.S. through a range of challenges. The 78-year-old Trump, meanwhile, could use the moment to try to move past his felony conviction in New York and convince an audience of tens of millions that he’s temperamentally suited to return to the Oval Office.

Biden and Trump enter the night facing fierce headwinds, including a public weary of the tumult of partisan politics. Both candidates are disliked by majorities of Americans, according to polling, and offer sharply different visions on virtually every core issue. Trump has promised sweeping plans to remake the U.S. government if he returns to the White House and Biden argues that his opponent would pose an existential threat to the nation's democracy.

With just over four months until Election Day, their performances have the rare potential to alter the trajectory of the race. Every word and gesture will be parsed not just for what both men say but how they interact with each other and how they hold up under pressure.

“Debates tend not to change voters’ perception in ways that change their vote: They ordinarily reinforce, not persuade,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on presidential communications. “What makes this debate different is that you have in essence two incumbents about whom voters have very well-formed views. But that doesn’t mean that those perceptions are right or match what voters will see on stage.”

Trump and Biden haven't been on the same stage or even spoken since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration after leading an unprecedented and unsuccessful effort to overturn his loss to Biden that culminated in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection by his supporters.

Thursday's broadcast on CNN will be the earliest general election debate in history. It's the first-ever televised general election presidential debate hosted by a single news outlet after both campaigns ditched the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which had organized every matchup since 1988.

Under the network’s rules, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not qualify.

Aiming to avoid a repeat of their chaotic 2020 matchups, Biden insisted — and Trump agreed — to hold the debate without an audience and to allow the network to mute the candidates’ microphones when it is not their turn to speak. There will be two commercial breaks, another departure from modern practice. The candidates have agreed not to consult staff or others while the cameras are off.

The timing follows moves by both candidates to respond to nationwide trends toward early voting by shifting forward the political calendar. It remains to be seen whether the advanced schedule will dampen the effects of any missteps or crystallize them in the public’s mind.

“You have two men that have not debated in four years,” said Phillippe Reines, a Democratic political consultant who helped former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepare for debates with Trump in 2016.

Biden and Trump, he said, “don’t like each other, haven’t seen each other, (are) pretty rusty heading into the biggest night of their lives. That about sums up what’s at stake on Thursday.”

The debate falls days after the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, ending a federally guaranteed right to abortion and pushing reproductive rights into the center of politics ever since.

The faceoff also occurs just after the Biden White House took executive action to restrict asylum claims at the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to lower the number of migrants entering the country. Trump has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign.

The wars in Ukraine and Gaza loom over the race, as do the candidates' sharply differing views about America’s role in the world and its alliances. Differences on inflation, tax policy and government investment to build infrastructure and fight climate change will provide further contrasts.

Also in the political background: The Supreme Court is on the brink of announcing its decision on whether Trump is legally immune for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. That’s weeks after Trump was convicted in New York of taking part in a hush money scheme that prosecutors alleged was intended to unlawfully influence the 2016 election.

Biden spent the week leading up to the debate secluded at Camp David with senior White House and campaign aides as well as a coterie of longtime advisers and allies. A mock stage was built at the compound to simulate the studio where the debate will be held, and Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, was reprising his role as Trump in practice sessions.

Aides say the work reflects Biden's understanding that he can't afford a flat showing. They insist the sometimes stodgy orator would rise to the occasion.

Trump, meanwhile, has continued his more unstructured debate prep with two days of meetings at his Florida estate, phoning allies and supporters, and road-testing attacks in social media postings and in interviews with conservative-leaning outlets. The unorganized style that is a hallmark of the former president’s often-rambling rally speeches could present a challenge in the regimented, tightly timed debate format.

Trump and his aides have spent months chronicling what they argue are signs of Biden’s diminished stamina. In recent days, they've started to predict Biden will be stronger on Thursday, aiming to raise expectations for the incumbent.

Atlanta, the debate's host city, offers symbolic and practical meaning for the campaign, but each side believes that what happens there will resonate far and wide.

In 2020, Biden secured Georgia’s 16 electoral votes with a margin of less than 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast. Trump pushed the state's Republican leadership to overturn his victory based on false theories of voter fraud, memorably being caught on tape saying he wanted to "find 11,780 votes.” He now faces state racketeering charges.

Both campaigns held a flurry of events in Atlanta leading into the debate, including competing events at Black-owned local businesses. Trump called in Friday to a gathering at Rocky’s Barbershop in the Buckhead community to talk about his matchup with Biden and question whether CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash would treat him fairly.

Heading out of the debate, both Biden and Trump will travel to states they hope to swing their way this fall. Trump is heading to Virginia, a onetime battleground that has shifted toward Democrats in recent years.

Biden is set to jet off to North Carolina, where he is expected to hold the largest-yet rally of his campaign in a state Trump narrowly carried in 2020.

Miller, Superville and Weissert reported from Washington and Price from New York. AP video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE - This combination of photos taken in Columbia, S.C. shows former President Donald Trump, left, on Feb. 24, 2024, and President Joe Biden on Jan. 27, 2024. (AP Photo)