Reds' Michael Lorenzen channelling Cueto, Chapman

Just about everyone who was watching Monday's Reds game against the Cubs on TV noticed that Michael Lorenzen was using one of Johnny Cueto's gloves — what they missed was he was also wearing a pair of Aroldis Chapman's cleats.

"Why not? These guys are unbelievable, so whenever I can use their stuff, I'm going to do it," Lorenzen said.

Lorenzen actually traded Cueto a glove, while Chapman gave him a couple of pair of cleats.

All three players use Nike gloves and cleats, so there are no sponsorship problems. Lorenzen said Cueto's glove is a little bigger than his, it also has a different webbing, is black instead of brown and, of course, has Cueto's name stitched on the thumb.

"It's just bigger and looks cooler," Lorenzen noted.

Lorenzen joked that he'd hoped Chapman's cleats would add a few miles per hour on his fastball and Cueto's glove would help his control.

"That's what I was hoping," he said. "Command will come — hopefully it'll come. It's going to come. I heard it takes three starts for it to come, and that was the second one. I used (the glove) in Miami."

Lorenzen threw 106 pitches and left after five innings, down 4-3. He walked three and struck out five in those five innings. In his July 9 loss to the Marlins, he walked four, and in the start before that, he left after just four innings, having thrown 90 pitches. He had 48 pitches through two innings on Monday, with 15 coming after a two-out walk to Cubs starting pitcher Clayton Richard.

"It's just like the same thing, different start. I've got to keep moving forward, I've got to keep learning," Lorenzen said. "It's tough to do, but the only way I'm getting through it is trusting in the Lord and the plan he has for me, to be honest.

"It can get frustrating, another start where pitch count is up early and coming out of the game because of pitch count. I put myself in bad situations, but I've just got to keep understanding the Lord has a plan, he's molding me and it's just going to make me better for the future, as long as I keep taking the punches, as long as I keep competing and not giving up. Once I give up, it's done. But I won't give up.

Still, the Reds were able to come back and get him off the hook, as Ryan Mattheus, Burke Badenhop, J.J. Hoover and Aroldis Chapman each threw a scoreless inning and Jay Bruce's 15th home run of the season put the Reds on top in the sixth.

"I can go home and sleep easy tonight and be really pumped up about the bullpen and how they came in and just kept them there," he said. "And the way Jay Bruce came up clutch and hit that ball 560 feet — 450 or whatever it was — it's good teamwork right there."