Brewers’ big personality
On and off field, Daniel Vogelbach making a huge contribution.
This was not the way the Milwaukee Brewers wanted to start their make-or-break final trip of the season.
An offense that has been challenged throughout the season to produce runs was no match Monday night for Cincinnati right-hander Luis Castillo, who out-pitched Brandon Woodruff as the Reds pulled away late to a 6-3 victory at Great American Ballpark.
The eighth victory in nine games for the Reds (28-27) allowed them to pull a game ahead of the fourth-place Brewers (26-27) for the final wildcard berth in the National League as well as in the Central Division standings.
In failing for the seventh time this season to climb above .500, Milwaukee saw its four-game winning streak snapped.
Castillo limited the Brewers to four hits and one run over 62⁄3 innings with nine strikeouts before turning it over to his bullpen.
It won't get any easier for Milwaukee in the remaining two games of the series with the Reds lining up their other two aces, Sonny Gray and Trevor Bauer, to pitch.
The Brewers posed a mild threat against Castillo in the first inning when Christian Yelich singled with one down and Daniel Vogelbach drew a two-out walk but Keston Hiura tapped a ball in front of the plate and was tagged out by catcher Curt Casali.
Woodruff found himself in a huge jam in the second inning when Eugenio Suárez led off with a four-pitch walk and Mike Moustakas jumped on a first-pitch fastball and yanked it into the right-field corner for a double, putting runners on second and third.
Woodruff caught a break when
Jesse Winker lined out to Vogelbach at first, hitting it right on the screws. The Brewers starter then recorded a huge out by whiffing Brian Goodwin before retiring Freddy Galvis on a grounder to first to escape that mess.
The Reds threatened again in the bottom of the fourth when Suárez singled with one down and Moustakas drew a four-pitch walk. Woodruff then fell behind in the count, 3-0, to Winker but recovered to get him to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Beginning with Hiura's out to end the first inning, Castillo settled in to retire 10 hitters in a row, using his devastating changeup to great effect. The string was snapped in dramatic fashion when Jedd Gyorko led off the fifth inning with a long home run to left, and on a 0-2 changeup no less.
With one down in the Cincinnati sixth, Nick Castellanos took an inside fastball the other way and into the rightfield corner for a double. He advanced to third on a wild pitch during an at-bat in which Joey Votto finally grounded out to second on the eighth pitch, with the infield playing in to force Castellanos to hold at third.
Woodruff was one pitch away from getting out of another jam but put a 1-2 fastball in a bad place and Suárez hammered it out to left-center for a two-run homer that put the Reds on top, 2-1. That was the 100th and last pitch of the night for Woodruff.
The Brewers had a chance to at least tie the game in the seventh when Gyorko worked Castillo for a one-out walk and moved to third when Jace Peterson lined a double over leftfielder Shogo Akiyama's head. Needing to put the ball in play, Orlando Arcia struck out on a 2-2 slider, the final pitch of Castillo's night.
Lefty Amir Garrett came on to retire pinch-hitter Tyrone Taylor on a grounder to third, and Cincinnati stayed on top.
The Reds broke open the game with four runs in the eighth off rookie reliever Drew Rasmussen, who surrendered a leadoff homer to Curt Casali and threerun blast by Moustakas, the former Brewers infielder.
Rasmussen had not allowed a home run in his first 10 appearances in the major leagues.
Peterson's two-out, two-run homer in the ninth off Nate Jones accounted for the Brewers' final runs.