Offense comes alive after exit of Castillo
Crew plates six runs against Reds’ bullpen
CINCINNATI – A reversal of fortune. That's what happened for the Milwaukee Brewers after Cincinnati starter Luis Castillo exited the game Thursday afternoon at Great American Ball Park. Held to one hit by Castillo for 5 2⁄3 innings, the offense came to life in a big way against the Reds' bullpen.
Putting six runs on the board against that relief corps, the Brewers pulled away to a 7-2 victory to capture the series, two games to one.
It was the 11th victory in 13 games for the Brewers and their 14th in their last 18 games, leaving them eight games above .500 (35-27), tying their highwater mark for the season.
Brewers starter Freddy Peralta had his outing end prematurely when a 37minute rain delay halted play prior to the fifth inning. Manager Craig Counsell chose not to bring Peralta back out, so his day ended with two hits and one run allowed over four innings, with two walks and six strikeouts.
Peralta had begun the season with 11 consecutive starts with at least seven strikeouts, the third-longest opening stretch in big-league history. Randy Johnson did it for 15 starts two times, and Shane Bieber had such a stretch of 12 games.
“As soon as we got the delay, we knew that it was going to be for more than 30 minutes, and they told me I was done for the day because we had to heat up and then had to come out,” Peralta said.
Asked if he was OK with leaving the game at that point, Peralta said, “I mean, yes, because there is nothing that I can do about it. You know, rain. I can’t control that. But in my mind, I want to stay in the game and throw my fifth, sixth inning.
“But it is what it is.” Counsell said he just didn’t think the upside of possibly one more inning was worth the risk of heating Peralta back up after the delay.
“They told us at the start we were going to be at 30-40 minutes,” Counsell said. “We were hitting first, so it was going to be longer than 45 minutes. I thought he had one inning left, really, and so it wasn’t worth having him get loose again, for me.”
The game started just as the one the night before, with Brewers leadoff hitter Luis Urías getting hit by a pitch. He moved up when Christian Yelich drew a one-out walk from Castillo, then scored on Avisaíl García’s opposite-field single to right.
A chance for a bigger inning slipped away when Castillo struck out Willy Adames and Jace Peterson grounded out to second. That began a stretch of 15 consecutive hitters retired by Castillo, who entered the game with a 2-8 record and 6.63 ERA,
The Reds tied it with one swing of the bat. Leading off the bottom of the second, Joey Votto got hold of a 3-2 fastball from Peralta at the top of the strike zone and drove it out to right-center for his sixth home run of the season.
The umpires initially tried to start the fifth despite the rain but reconsidered and called for the tarp to be placed on the field.
When play resumed, Castillo picked up where he left off, striking out Manny Piña and Jackie Bradley Jr., before Pablo
Reyes, batting for Peralta, grounded out to third. Brent Suter took over on the mound for the Brewers and surrendered a somewhat tainted run that put Cincinnati on top.
Kyle Farmer led off with a bouncer to second baseman Jace Peterson, who couldn’t handle it cleanly on what was ruled an infield hit. After Castillo bunted him to second, Suter struck out Jonathan India but Jesse Winker punched an opposite-field single through the left side to give the Reds a 2-1 lead.
Castillo struck out Urías to open the sixth, his 15th consecutive hitter retired, but did something he would regret later, walking Daniel Vogelbach and Yelich. García then put a great at-bat on him, fouling off four two-strike pitches before whiffing on pitch No. 10, Castillo’s vaunted changeup.
Reds manager David Bell decided that was enough for his starter and summoned right-hander Lucas Sims, a move that did not go well for Cincinnati. Adames greeted him with a drive to leftcenter that bounded over the wall for a run-scoring ground-rule double, tying the game, 2-2.
“Willy came through again,” Vogelbach said. ‘It seems like every other night, Willy puts together a great at-bat and comes up with a big hit.”
The ball bouncing over the wall temporarily spared the Reds the go-ahead run but Peterson followed with an opposite-field, bloop single into shallow left to put the Brewers on top, 4-2, a somewhat stunning turn of events considering they managed only one hit off Castillo.
The Brewers’ lead grew to 6-2 in the seventh on a two-out, two-run homer by Vogelbach off lefty Sean Doolittle, his second blast in two games. Back-toback doubles in the eighth by Adames and Peterson boosted that lead to 7-2.
“I’m just trying to have good at-bats and put the barrel on the ball because when you do that over the length of the season, good things are going to happen,” Vogelbach said. “I was able to get some pitches today I was able to put some good swings on for an extra base hit, take a walk. It’s day by day and we’ll go into tomorrow.”
Unlike the Reds’ bullpen, the Brewers’ relief corps got the job done. Suter pitched a scoreless sixth, and Brad Boxberger, Hoby Milner and Trevor Richards followed with scoreless innings to seal the victory.
“The guys did a nice job,” Counsell said. “Trevor Richards hasn’t been out there in a little while and he had a really crisp ninth inning. It was a day where they came in and were really effective. Got a couple guys days off.”
RECORD
Overall: 35-27 Home: 17-15 Away: 18-12
COMING UP
Friday: Pirates at Brewers, 7:10 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Brandon Woodruff (4-2, 1.42) vs. Pittsburgh RHP Chase De Jong (0-0, 5.40). TV: Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.