Luis Castillo shows up, Reds offense does not in 6-0 loss to Cubs

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Luis Castillo didn’t live up to his ace building his last Saturday, when he got hit around by the Milwaukee Brewers.

He absolutely lived up to the billing today as he shut down the Cubs through seven full innings. Jason Heyward turned on a pitch in the second for a home run, but otherwise, Castillo kept a dangerous lineup in check for a long time today. His final line: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 6 K, 3 BB. He had a hit, too!

It was a great bounce-back start for Castillo, and the type that Reds fans have come to expect more often than not this season. As Reds fans have also come to expect this season, the offense did absolutely nothing to back him up, but still. Have a day, Luis. And a trophy.

Honorable mention to Joey Votto and Eugenio Suarez, who both had two hit days (Suarez with a double), Jose Iglesias hit once and also showed off some more wizardry at short.

Key Plays

• Luis Castillo cruised through the first inning and two-thirds, but he served up a meatball to Jason Heyward with two outs in the 2nd inning. Heyward knocked it out of the park. That was the only run (or hit, or baserunner) the Cubs would get in the inning. Cubs strike first, 1-0.
• Castillo kept them off the board through the rest of his outing, a brilliant seven inning appearance. The bullpen appearances from David Hernandez, Zach Duke, and Jared Hughes didn’t go so well in the top of the 8th. Hernandez left the inning after only getting an out and seeing runners advance to 2B and 3B. Duke immediately walked Anthony Rizzo to load ‘em up, and Javier Baez hit a dinger to right off of Hughes, a grand slam. Hughes got the next two, but the Cubs take a big lead into the bottom of the 8th, 5-0.
• Addison Russell singled to start the 9th and then advanced to 2B on a throwing error by Robert Stephenson. Albert Almora flew out for the first out before Daniel Descalso struck out, but Kyle Schwarber smacked a double into right center to score Russell. Cubs, 6-0.
• That was that. Cubs win, 6-0.

Tony Graphanino

Other Notes

• The Reds announced yesterday that they have released Nick Travieso, which is a big fat bummer. This comes only a week after the team also released another first rounder, Nick Howard. Never pitch, kids. Never pitch. Hopefully a couple of more recent First Round Nicks will have much more success for the organization for a long time to come.
• Nick Senzel had some thoughts toward... someone, we’ll assume a Cubs fan. Just another image to add to the “Reds flipping the bird archive.”
• Pedro Strop beaned Yasiel Puig in the bottom of the 8th. It was intentional, though I’m not entirely sure why, other than Yasiel Puig gets under people’s skins. Still, Puig didn’t like it all that much and had some things to say about it, which eventually cleared the benches. It never really went anywhere, but it looked like it could by Puig vs. The World, Chicago Edition for a minute.
• After Jose Peraza was accidentially hit by Dylan Maples in the bottom of the 9th, David Bell came to find out why, exactly, Maples wasn’t tossed after the warnings were issued the inning prior. You know who was tossed? David Bell, the 6th time this season. Those 6 ejections are tied for the most in a single season in Reds history... on June 29th. I think Dave’s gonna sew up that one for himself, for sure.
• Tomorrow, the Reds will wear red pants, which is absolutely awesome.
• Elsewhere, the Yankees and Red Sox played a game in London today, an exciting 17-13 affair that lasted approximately three days.
• The Reds and Cubs will wrap their weekend series tomorrow, a typical 1:10 Sunday start time. Anthony Disco DeSclafani will take the ball for the good guys, while cranky old Jon Lester will get the nod for the Cubs.
• Tunes.