All-star stuff Castillo leads surging Reds to series win
Reds 1, Brewers 0
CINCINNATI — Luis Castillo, the Cincinnati Reds’ only selection to the All-star Game, pitched like a star in his final outing before the Midseason Classic.
Castillo flirted with a nohitter and went 7 innings of one-hit ball in a 1-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers before a Fourth of July crowd of 20,885 at Great American Ball Park. Cincinnati won three games in the four-game series against the National League Central leaders.
Castillo struck out nine and walked one. He threw 97 pitches, 62 for strikes, and his day ended when the game was interrupted by rain with two outs in the top of the eighth. It was his longest outing of the year.
The delay lasted 69 minutes.
“I think it’s the best outing in all my career,” Castillo said. “I felt really good out there. … Everything was going well — my command and my
second and my third pitch, (and) my slider was working really good tonight.”
David Hernandez took over for Castillo with a 2-and-0 count to pinch-hitter Jesus Aguilar, who ended up walking. But Hernandez bounced back to strike out Yasmani Grandal and end the inning.
Raisel Iglesias pitched the ninth for his 16th save, though it didn’t come easily.
Christian Yelich led off the Brewers ninth with a double. Mike Moustakas lofted a
foul fly along the leftfield line, and Phillip Ervin reached into the seats to catch it for the first out. Keston Hiura grounded out. That brought up Eric Thames, a Reds killer, but he flied out to right to end it.
Ervin’s play was huge.
“I kind of like backhanded it,” Ervin said. “I spun off the wall. I’m going to have to go look at the video. I want to see the catch myself.”
Reds pitchers have not allowed a run over their last 23 innings.
The Reds closed to within 3 games of the Brewers after Cincinnati’s first series win over Milwaukee since September 2017.
The Reds are 5-2 so far on the nine-game homestand that leads into the All-star Break.
“That’s the stat that counts,” Reds manager David Bell said. “The standings, we do watch them. You do follow, but, at the same time, you got to do a good job of staying in the moment. You can’t get ahead of yourself. …
“We have a long way to go, but we really like how our team is playing together and competing. It a fun group to be part of.”
The Reds scored the game’s only run in the first inning.
Jesse Winker led off with a double into the right-center gap. Joey Votto followed with a single. One out later,
Yasiel Puig hit a soft grounder to third baseman Mike Moustakas. He had no play, and Winker scored.
Castillo hit Yelich with a pitch in the first and Hiura in the fourth, but they were the only two to reach through six innings.
Hiura then broke up the no-hitter with a clean single up the middle with one out in the seventh.
Castillo said he wasn’t thinking no-no.
“Not really until the base hit in the seventh,” he said. “The fans started clapping and cheering. I said, ‘What’s going on?’ I just looked and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s the first hit.’”