Luis Castillo dazzles against former Marlins club, Reds offense falls flat in 1-0 loss

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Luis Castillo entered play on Friday having had quite the good run of late. His 4 starts in the month of September had yielded 24.2 IP of 1.46 ERA ball, and he owned an impressive 29/7 K/BB ratio in that time.

Stretch that back to his last 13 games starte since the beginning of July, and the story was quite similar: 73.2 IP, 2.93 ERA, 75/15 K/BB. In other words, it was pretty evident well before the Cincinnati Reds and Miami Marlins started tonight’s game that Castillo was on quite a roll, and against Miami - his former club, mind you - he still managed to have one of the best starts of his career.

He managed 25 outs on Friday, his 8.1 IP of scoreless ball the longest outing of his still-young career. Even while exiting after a single and a walk, he only allowed 6 total baserunners on the night, needing only 102 pitches to get as deep as he has ever gone in a single start. It was precisely the kind of outing that builds hope as the Reds head into their winter hibernation, and will surely have Castillo penciled in atop the Cincinnati rotation as March rolls around.

Key Plays

• After David Hernandez managed to bail out Castillo in the Bottom of the 9th, he couldn’t quite get the job done when tasked with going out for the Bottom of the 10th. A 1-out Brian Anderson double to the wall in RF began things, and an eerily similar Isaac Galloway double to nearly the identical spot later brought him home for the Miami walk-off victory. Reds lost, 1-0.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• This was the penultimate Friday of Reds baseball for the 2018 season. Man, that just flew by with a big heaping pile of losing, didn’t it?
• Saturday’s matchup between these two squads will feature yet another former Marlin starting for the Reds. Anthony DeSclafani will take the mound for Cincinnati, and he’ll be opposed by Miami starter Jose Urena. First pitch is again set for 7:10 PM ET.
• Tunes.