Brewers lay siege to Castillo, Reds lose 6-5 to end win streak

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

It was a bit of a mixed bag from the Cincinnati Reds in their first loss in a week.

They got dingers and 2 ribbies apiece from both Yasiel Puig and Eugenio Suarez, the latter of whom needed a big hit in the worst way to bust his slump. Each of those dingers marked the lone time on-base for that duo, however.

Derek Dietrich, on the other hand, was plunked yet again, and added a triple and a run scored to his tally. Jesse Winker was on-base twice, too, singling, walking, and scoring twice in his time as the leadoff hitter.

And while Luis Castillo struggled mightily as the starter, the bullpen was nails - Michael Lorenzen, Robert Stephenson, Amir Garrett, Jared Hughes, and David Hernandez combined to throw 4.1 innings of hitless ball, which is damn impressive in its own right.

On to tomorrow, I suppose.

Key Plays

• Winker opened play by leading off with a single in the Top of the 1st against Milwaukee starter Jhoulys Chacin, and he scored a few batters later on the triple into the RF corner by Dietrich. Puig then launched his 2-run donk into the LF seats, and the Reds held an early 3-0 advantage once again.
• Balls, unfortunately, were flying for both teams, though. Yasmani Grandal greeted Luis Castillo with a leadoff dinger in the Bottom of the 1st, and Castillo then walked Christian Yelich and allowed a double off the LF wall to Mike Moustakas to put a pair of runners in scoring position. A walk to Lorenzo Cain then followed to load the bases, but Castillo got a huge K of Eric Thames before Orlando Arcia hit a grounder to the usually brilliant Jose Iglesias at SS that could have potentially been a double play to escape the inning. Instead, Iglesias bobbled it and then airmailed the throw to 1B, allowing 2 runs to score and getting nary an out. Travis Shaw’s groundout later plated another run, and the Reds were suddenly down 4-3.
• Suarez got that run back for the Reds in the Top of the 3rd, yanking a hanging breaking ball down the LF line for a solo dinger. That left the score tied, 4-4.
• Ben Gamel was the 9th hitter in the Brewers lineup today, yet Castillo still managed to issue him a second leadoff walk in the Bottom of the 4th. That haunted immediately when Grandal hit a laser to CF that Jose Peraza - the CF on the day with Nick Senzel on the bench - kinda sorta misplayed, and the result was an RBI double. Castillo’s breaking ball had been missing terribly all day, and he missed with one a batter later for a wild pitch that allowed the lumbering Grandal to move to 3B, and that burned terribly when Cain poked a single into RF that brought in a run, chasing Castillo to the showers. Reds trailed, 6-4.
• The big bats in the Cincinnati lineup carved a run back in the Top of the 5th, as Winker walked, Votto doubled to move him to 3B, and a productive groundout from Suarez brought in a run. Reds trailed, 6-5, which was unfortunately how things finished.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• There’s no two ways around it: Luis Castillo was pretty bad through and through today. Yes, his infield defense let him down once, but he also was guilty of blowing another 3-run lead, walking the #9 hitter on multiple occasions, and leaving meatballs on 0-2 counts. Walks once again haunted him, too. His final line: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 6 R (4 ER), 5 BB, 6 K on 96 pitches. Not great, Bob.
• Derek Dietrich was hit by an inside change-up from Brewers lefty Alex Claudio in the Top of the 5th, marking the 6th time he’s been hit by a pitch this series. That’s a modern MLB record for a series of any length, per the Reds’ PR.
• The series finale on Sunday is set for a 2:10 PM ET start, with Anthony DeSclafani facing off against Brandon Woodruff. Woodruff took the loss in his last outing, but the Brewers had ripped off wins in each of the 9 previous games he’d started, in case that means anything to you. He’s a Mississippi State product, so it’s a bit of a bummer that we won’t have The Cowboy on the call for tomorrow.
• Tunes.