The Los Angeles Dodgers offense had no answers for Luis Castillo as they were stymied in a 3-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.
The right-hander continued his resurgence after a rough start to the season, holding the Dodgers to five hits over 6.1 scoreless innings, and striking out 10 against two walks. “It’s just what he does,” Walker Buehler said of Castillo after the game.
“He’s obviously got a good fastball and really, really good changeup. Just keeping us off balance. I think it’s pretty well-known that he’s one of the most talented guys in the league. A good night for him and unfortunately I couldn’t keep us in it.”
Castillo overpowered the Dodgers for most of the night with a fastball that regularly touched the upper 90s while occasionally mixing in a changeup and slider. “He just kept us off balance,” Matt Beaty said of the team’s struggles against Castillo.
“Had his fastball running a lot, changeup was really good. He just kept us off balance and pitched a really good game.”
Castillo was removed from his outing after throwing 111 pitches, tasking the Reds bullpen with recording the final eight outs of the game.
Luis Cessa did his part by retiring all five batters faced, and even though he allowed a two-out RBI single to Beaty in the ninth, Michael Lorenzen notched his fourth save of the season.
“Castillo was really good. It’s fastball, changeup and mixes in a slider once in a while. I just thought we chased at times and expanded when shouldn’t have,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“Obviously it’s a lot easier to say than do. He’s got really good stuff. When you’re upper-90s and you’ve got a ball that’s presented as a strike, gets off the plate and misses barrels, and I just thought we expanded. He did a great job of keeping us at bay.”
NL postseason picture update
With their win over the Dodgers, the Reds remained just one game behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the second National League Wild Card spot entering play Saturday.
Meanwhile, L.A. fell to two games behind the San Francisco Giants in the NL West with just 14 contests remaining on their schedule.
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