Cleveland sends Reds to yet another 1-run loss with 10th inning walk-off single

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Luis Castillo fired 6 largely excellent innings for the Cincinnati Reds on the night, something we’ve become accustomed to seeing from the burgeoning ace of their staff.

Unfortunately, the Reds also chose to not back him up with enough offense to down the Cleveland Indians in this one, instead losing yet another 1-run game. Gahhhh.

Castillo’s final line does not reflect how well he battled late, but still looks pretty damn good: 6 IP, 4 H, ER, 2 BB, 6 K on 109 pitches.

Honorable Mentions are due to: David Hernandez, who fired a perfect 8th inning against the best hitters in the Cleveland lineup (with 2 K), only to back it up with a perfect 9th inning, too (with 3 more K); Yasiel Puig, who singled, doubled, and fired a laser home from RF to keep what could’ve potentially been a sac fly from happening; Nick Senzel, who doubled in a run; and Jose Iglesias, who singled, walked twice, and scored.

Key Plays

• Carlos Santana finally put a run on the scoreboard in this one with his mauling of an 88 mph Castillo changeup, one he sent over the RF wall for a solo shot in the Bottom of the 4th to put the Reds behind, 1-0.
• The Reds, though, punched back immediately in the Top of the 5th. Jose Iglesias reached on an infield single, and he moved to 2B a batter later on a productive groundout by Tucker Barnhart. That put Iggy in scoring position for Senzel, who responded with an RBI double to deep CF that leveled the score at 1-1.
• After that, the game settled in as a rather stagnant, uneventful one...at least until Raisel Iglesias took over in the Bottom of the 10th in a non-save situation and fell apart. He walked Mike Freeman, which is never good, and then allowed a double into CF by Leonys Martin. With 1-out, that led David Bell to wisely choose to walk Francisco Lindor intentionally to load the bags, but Oscar Mercado cared not that he was tasked with winning things, as he dumped a single into LF to score the walk-off run. Reds lost a 1-run game - who knew?! - 2-1.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• Just after this game got started, the Reds announced that they’d signed Nick Lodolo, their 1st round pick from last week’s MLB Draft. The LHP from TCU reportedly got the full slot-value amount of $5.43 million.
• Robert Stephenson threw an inning for AAA Louisville tonight while on a rehab appearance, fanning 2 against a walk and a hit in 1 IP.
• It’s an early one tomorrow, with first pitch set for the series finale at 1:10 PM ET. Anthony DeSclafani will toe the rubber for the Reds, while Zach Plesac will go for Cleveland.
• Tunes.