Waino strong, but Cards' bats quieted in loss

ST. LOUIS -- Adam Wainwright walked into the dugout after the top of the first inning Friday night and hit his hands on the wall. Joey Votto had just hit a two-run moonshot to the top of the right-field bleachers at Busch Stadium, giving the Reds an early lead, and Wainwright wasn’t thrilled.

But Wainwright still pitched his way to a quality start. On the 15th anniversary of his Major League debut, the veteran right-hander showed how he’s performed so well for that many years. He evaded eight hits and two walks, only allowing one run after that homer in his six-inning outing. He changed his plan to rely more on what was working for him.

And Wainwright kept the Cardinals in the game. It just wasn’t enough opposite Reds starter Luis Castillo, who threw his first career complete game and handed St. Louis a 3-1 loss in the series opener.

• Box score

The Cardinals didn't muster much offense against Castillo. They had only two hits off the right-hander, and their lone run came on a Matt Carpenter groundout in the second inning. St. Louis needed to get Castillo out of the game to turn it over to a shaky Cincinnati bullpen, but it only got baserunners on in four of his nine innings.

Castillo averaged 97 mph on both his sinker and his four-seam fastball, and he threw his changeup 35 times (31 percent). Of the 22 swings he got on it, 10 were swing-and-misses.

“Attacking the hitters,” Castillo said through an interpreter. “When you attack the hitters, you can set the game. For us, that’s what really worked tonight. We attacked the hitters and that just got us the game.”

A leadoff walk in the fifth turned into part of a double play, and that was the last baserunner Castillo yielded until he walked Paul Goldschmidt with two outs in the ninth. Brad Miller then grounded out back to Castillo, who threw 112 pitches and struck out six.

“That’s as good as stuff as we’ve seen,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. “Guy did his part to beat us, and that’s what happened.”

In the first, Votto made hard contact on Wainwright’s 3-1 cutter, which spun slowly instead of breaking in on Votto’s left-handed swing. The pitch came in at 86 mph and left Votto’s bat at 113.2 mph, according to Statcast. It landed a projected 442 feet away in the right-field stands and made a loud clang once it finally dropped.

Wainwright learned quickly that his cutter wasn’t going to work for him, so he “bagged it,” relying more on his curveball, sinker and four-seam fastball.

“The home run was on a sloppy cutter,” Wainwright said. “It’s located, but it’s not tight and it’s not sharp. Didn’t finish well. Located well to [Nick] Castellanos, he hit it up the middle. Location is great, but if it’s not sharp, it’s not clean, it’s not crisp, then those guys are going to put a good swing on it. It’s a battle. Sometimes you've got to battle with lesser stuff.”

In the fourth, Reds shortstop José Garcia sent a ball back to Wainwright that hit him in his right quad, right where it meets his knee. Despite an exit velocity of 105 mph, Wainwright got the out, finished the inning and came out for the next inning, seemingly unbothered by the bruise. It tightened by the sixth, but he wasn’t concerned after the game.

“He put a good swing on it,” Wainwright said. “Luckily, we got an out there. I’ll stick my leg out every time for an out.”

Cardinals relievers Seth Elledge, Tyler Webb and Nabil Crismatt combined for three perfect innings of relief following Wainwright, totaling four strikeouts, to keep the game within reach.

“Give them credit, they held it right there and gave us a chance,” Shildt said. “Those are three big innings, and effective innings. The sign of a good bullpen and a good team is the bullpen that goes in there after that sixth inning, down a couple runs, and holds it right there, gives you a chance to come back. It’s an important thing, it keeps you in games, and clearly when you stay in a game, you have a chance to win it when you’re down.”