The Reds scored eight runs in the eighth inning, but lost, 13-8, to the Colorado Rockies.
How did that happen? Luis Castillo. And Cionel Perez.
Just when it appeared that he had reached rock bottom, Castillo tumbled down a mine shaft.
The much-troubled Cincinnati Reds pitcher, facing the National League’s team with the worst record, gave up eight runs and a career-worst 10 hits in only 3 2/3 innings. He retired 11 batters and gave up 10 hits.
He was facing the Colorado Rockies and they aren’t the Blake Street Bombers of the late 1990s, a team loaded with offensive weapons like Larry Walker, Andres Galarraga, Vinny Castilla and Dante Bichette.
And on this night, Colorado’s best hitter, Trevor Story, sat this one out.
Nevertheless, when the Colorado hit fest concluded it was Rockies 13, Reds 8.
Amazingly the Reds had, zero runs until they scored eight in the eighth when it was 10-0.
They had eight hits, including a two-run pinch-hit home run by Tyler Stephenson and a three-run home run by Jonathan India, his second hit of the inning.
India was 0 for 17 when he opened the eighth with a single and finished the inning with his three-run homer.
Colorado’s pitching staff, both the starters and the relief pitchers, own the worst earned run averages in the National League.
But Colorado starter Chi Chi Gonzalez, he of the 5.37 earned run average, strapped a tight muzzle on the Cincinnati offense.
In a playpen that is considered a hitter’s paradise, the Reds scraped together no runs and four hits over seven innings against Gonzalez.
The Reds threatened Gonzalez in the first inning, putting two on with one out. But Mike Moustakas hit into a double play. After that, the Reds reached second base only once, a two-out double by Nick Castellanos in the sixth.
The Reds, though, ripped into the Rockies bullpen in the eighth — Lucas Gilbreath, former Cincinnati pitcher Robert Stephenson and Mychal Givens.
Alas, the Rockies retrieved three of those runs in the bottom of the eighth against Perez, including a home run by Garrett Hampson.
As per usual, Castillo couldn’t escape the first inning unscathed. When the game began, Castillo had given up 30 runs this season, 15 in the first inning.
Make it 38 runs, 18 in the first inning.
Raimel Tapia opened with a single and scored on Connor Joe’s double, his first RBI this season. With two outs, Josh Fuente launched a two-run home run and it was 3-0.
Castillo escaped the second and third innings, but the fourth inning was a first-degree disaster. The Rockies scored five runs, all with two outs.
With two outs and two on, Castillo walked Tapia on four pitchess to fill the bases. The Rockies then rocked Castillo for four straight hits. Included was another run-scoring hit by Joe and a two-run single by Fuentes that ended Castillo’s night.
He left with his ever-rising earned run average swelled to 7.71 and his record plummeted to 1-and-5.
After the Reds bullpen pitched 5 2/3 perfect innings Wednesday in Pittsburgh, the bullpen on Thursday gave up five runs and five hits in 4 1/3 innings.
To make matters worse for the Reds, they lost two players to injuries during the game. Nick Senzel crashed into the wall in the first inning chasing Joe’s double and left with a heel injury.
First baseman Moustakas injured a finger on his throwing hand chasing a fly ball into the protective netting.
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