Nick Castellanos hits grand slam & half-grand slam in Reds 12-2 rout of Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals had already borne the brunt of Nick Castellanos’ prowess this season prior to Wednesday evening’s series finale.

Case in point:

Albert Cesare via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Anyway, despite the best puny protests from Cardinals manager Mike Shildt, Castellanos socked the hell out of the ball against St. Louis again tonight. He belted a grand slam that held up after Shildt asked the umpires to check his bat post-facto, adding another 4 ribbies to the 2 he socked on a 2-run tater earlier in the game.

It was a much-needed offensive outburst after the Cincinnati Reds bats had been sluggish of late. Hell, even Eugenio Suarez got into the action in a big, big way, socking a 2-run dinger after his earlier 2-run dinger was (correctly) ruled to merely be a double off the yellow line atop the LF wall.

All told, it was more than enough to back Sonny Gray, who yielded just 2 ER in 5 IP as the Reds salvaged a game from the series. And since San Diego dropped their contest earlier in the day, the Reds again are tied for the second Wild Card spot in the National League after this impressive 12-2 victory.

Tony Graphanino

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Castellanos, obviously.

(He walked, too.)

Other Notes

• Joey Votto walked twice, singled, and scored. After his double/walk/ribbie from earlier today in the first game of the doubleheader, hopefully that’s a sign that he’s heating back up after a frustrating 3 for 27 spell.
• No game tomorrow, though the Reds will open a series against the Detroit Tigers in GABP on Friday. First pitch is set for 7:10 PM ET, with Vlad Gutierrez set to start for Cincinnati.
• Tunes.