Luis Castillo dazzles, Jonathan India homers as Cincinnati Reds beat Chicago Cubs 5-3

Luis Castillo entered the Bottom of the 6th with ~90 pitches logged on the evening, an evening in which he’d long sense shown skipper David Bell that he had full control over the Chicago Cubs. That performance clearly got to Bell, who opted to leave his ace in through a 33 pitch grind that inning, one that paid off with Castillo getting out of a jam and leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 5-3 win over their division rivals.

Castillo’s 123 pitch outing marked the most pitches tossed by a Reds starter since Johnny Cueto accomplished such a feat back in 2015, and certainly felt like a showcase to the rest of the vultures circling the trade market. Keep in mind that Castillo started the season late due to a lingering ‘sore’ shoulder, and all worries about how that’s set him back in any way surely were eschewed tonight.

Castillo was brilliant, full stop. He allowed nary a run and struck out 11 against 3 walks - 2 of which came in his final IP. His fastball sat 97-99 mph until he exited, and the fact is that if the Reds aren’t going to choose to throw gobs of money at him to pitch for them, just about every single team in baseball is about to.

Hopefully, they’ll send the Reds something decent before doing so, at least.

Jonathan India provided the single biggest pop of the night offensively, his 3-run blast in the Top of the 7th giving the Reds a then 5-0 lead at the time. That shrank, of course, because the bullpen is the bullpen, but it was the kind of straightaway monster knock that hopefully signals that India is both back and ready to go on a tear. He was backed immediately in the batting order by solid nights from both Brandon Drury (2 for 4) and Donovan Solano (2 for 4), while catcher Aramis Garcia smacked a trio of singles to continue his solid output of late.

All told, it was a 5-3 victory for the Reds to open a very, very rare 3-game midweek set against the Cubs that will feature nary a day game.

Tony Graphanino (link)

Other Notes

• There were a fleet of promotions across the Cincinnati Reds minors today, with the notables being Allan Cerda up to AA, Brandon Williamson up to AAA, and Tyler Callihan up to High-A. Whether or not it was related, or not, Colin Moran was outrighted off the 40-man roster, and it’ll be up to him (as a veteran with enough service time) to decide whether he’ll stick around with the Reds wherever they send him or opt for free agency and a shot elsewhere.
• It’ll be Hunter Greene on the bump for the Reds tomorrow for yet another 8:05 PM ET start. Justin Steele will go for Chicago.
• Tunes.