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Cincinnati Reds Press Clippings July 21, 2017 THIS DAY IN REDS HISTORY 1962-The Reds purchase Joe Nuxhall from their San Diego farm club in the Pacific Coast League MLB.COM Castillo corrects course in solid 6-IP outing By Mark Sheldon / MLB.com | @m_sheldon | July 20th, 2017 + 15 COMMENTS CINCINNATI -- Reds rookie starting pitcher Luis Castillo hasn't had any easy opponents through six big league starts. The flame- throwing righty has faced only first-place teams or playoff contenders thus far -- the Nationals (twice), Brewers, Rockies and D- backs (twice). The first encounter with Arizona yielded Castillo's first win. On Thursday, a rough first inning was followed by an important course correction, but it was too late in Cincinnati's 12-2 loss to the D-backs. "If you're going to face these type of hitters, you have to be 100 percent ready, mentally and physically," Castillo said via translator Julio Morillo. "You know you can't make mistakes, because you know you're going to pay for it." Castillo, gave up four earned runs and four hits over six innings with one walk and seven strikeouts. But his first three batters of the day reached safely, with bad consquences. Following a leadoff walk to Daniel Descalso on five pitches, Chris Iannetta hit a double and Jake Lamb slugged a 0-1 changeup for a three-run home run to center field that quickly made it a 3-0 game. After the homer, Castillo retired 12 of the next 13 and 18 of his last 20 batters. A mechanical adjustment was made after the first inning. "He has a tendency to pull the front side," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "You can see, especially against a right-handed hitter, a lot of those fastballs he misses are glove-side misses, or to the catcher's backhand. He's really got to focus on staying in line to the plate. I think Mack [Jenkins, the pitching coach] had a good conversation with him to really get him lined back up." "I think I was working too fast and that's why my front shoulder was open, working too fast," Castillo said. "Everything was missing arm-side. After that I just figured it out, I picked my tempo up, I knew what I had to do in order to be better. After that, everything was back to normal." Castillo, 24, is capable of throwing 99-100 mph but reached a maximum velocity of 97.9 mph, according to Statcast™. Once he made some fixes, his changeup was more effective and unlike the first inning, he was able to strike out Lamb with it in the sixth. "When you've got 100 like that, I'm not saying you're cheating to it, but you're looking for that heater," Lamb said. "And he was locating that changeup really well. He was throwing it down. He got me on it, full count. Situation like that, if you're going to spot up that changeup low and away -- it was actually probably just away -- for a strike, you got to give him credit. That's really good stuff." Castillo threw 100 pitches and got through six innings, leaving with a 4-1 deficit. He is 1-3 with a 3.86 ERA since his promotion from Double-A Pensacola. "We had to have it, we had to have the [sixth] inning even though he didn't really pitch to the top of his ability," Price said. "He did keep himself in the game for six innings and that was important considering the state of the bullpen." Mark Sheldon has covered the Reds for MLB.com since 2006, and previously covered the Twins from 2001-05. Follow him on Twitter @m_sheldon and Facebook and listen to his podcast. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. Suarez homers twice, but Reds fall in finale By Mark Sheldon and Jeremy Vernon / MLB.com | July 20th, 2017 + 143 COMMENTS CINCINNATI -- Three batters into Thursday's game at Great American Ball Park, the D-backs set the tone. After the first two batters reached, Jake Lamb slugged a three-run home run that sent Arizona on its way to a 12-2 victory over the Reds. That claimed two of three games in the series. Before Lamb batted, Daniel Descalso walked and Chris Iannetta hit a double against Reds rookie Luis Castillo. Castillo went on to retire 18 of his next 20 batters. Lamb added a second homer, a three-run shot to left field, in the ninth inning against Ariel Hernandez during a six-run rally to finish with a career-high six RBIs. "I am so proud of these guys, fighting through some really difficult circumstances over the past several games -- a very capable Cincinnati Reds team, at 1 in the morning our starter has to go home for the birth of his child," D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. "We found a way to get it done … These guys really did a nice job rallying around one another." Summoned for a spot start after Taijuan Walker left on paternity leave, Patrick Corbin provided 7 1/3 superb innings of work with one earned run, seven hits, one walk and six strikeouts. Corbin did not allow a run until Eugenio Suarez led off the Cincinnati fourth inning with a home run to left field that cut his lead to 3-1. Arizona got the run back in the fifth when Gregor Blanco hit a triple against Castillo and scored on Descalso's sacrifice fly. Castillo pitched six innings with four earned runs, four hits, one walk and seven strikeouts. Reds reliever Tony Cingrani allowed Blanco's two-run homer in the seventh inning. The first batter after Corbin departed, Suarez, greeted reliever and former Red J.J. Hoover with a solo homer to right field. That gave Suarez 15 homers this season and the third multi-homer game of his career. Hernandez's rough ride in the ninth marked the fourth time in the last seven games the Reds' pitching staff has yielded double-digit run totals. During the 1-6 homestand that has three games remaining, Reds pitchers have allowed 20 homers. "The theme is from a statistical standpoint, if we give up six runs or less we have an over .600 winning percentage," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "But unfortunately, we have a lot of games where we give up more than six and that makes it a challenge. "We need to be able to pitch better. So when we lose we end up talking quite often about the fact that we didn't pitch well enough." MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Corbin gets Lamb off the hook: Following the Suarez homer, Corbin was in trouble when he gave up three straight singles to load the bases with no outs. The last hit, by Scooter Gennett, came when Lamb didn't touch third base for a force play and made a throw to first base instead. Corbin bailed him out, however, by retiring the rest of the side in order with two infield pop-ups sandwiching a strikeout. "We had a good matchup," Price said. "Devin [Mesoraco], in particular on Corbin, he really hits left-handed pitching. He got into a good count but just wasn't able to square the ball up. Then [Scott] Schebler and [Jose] Peraza weren't able to come up with the hit. That's was a big moment, but it was one inning of opportunity. We need to create more and put ourselves in better positions of those opportunities. The more opportunities you have, you're eventually going to come through in the big moment." Key triple: Leading off the fifth inning, Blanco lifted a fly ball to right field. The ball was short of clearing the wall but Scott Schebler misjudged it with a late leap as it ricocheted off the fence and got away. Blanco motored to third base with an easy triple, which set the stage for an add-on run for the D-backs. Blanco returned in the seventh with his homer off of Cingrani. QUOTABLE "Yeah, I feel really good now. I feel better. I'm just trying to be the same all the time. It's hard to be there constantly. I want to be there every day and I'm working hard to be there, my swing is so good. I see breaking balls and everything good now. I'm trying to put the ball in play like today, and hit it hard." -- Suarez, who came in batting .178 over his last 31 games, but is finding his way out of his slump SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS In the ninth inning according to Statcast™, Marte's homer against Hernandez was off of a 99.7-mph fastball. The home run pitch to Lamb earlier in the inning 99.1-mph. Entering the day, there had been only five home runs hit in the Majors on pitches that were 99 mph or higher all season. REPLAY REVIEW With runners on first and second base in the bottom of the fourth inning, a Gennett grounder took a weird roll down the line. Arizona third baseman Lamb picked up the ball and instead of touching third base for a force play, fired to first base. Gennett was called out by umpire Adrian Johnson but the Reds dugout challenged. After a review, replay officials overturned the call that gave Gennett a single and loaded the bases with no outs.