Winker, Castellanos HRs can't rescue Reds

Despite Jesse Winker's third-inning monster mash that continued one of the best seasons at the plate in the Majors, it ultimately didn’t have much influence in the Reds’ 9-4 loss to the Brewers on Sunday afternoon in the rubber match at Great American Ball Park.

It was a tale of two games for Cincinnati, one where the club’s top two bats stayed hot, but its starting pitcher’s cold spell continued. The loss put a stamp on a 1-6 homestand that not even stellar weeks from Winker and Nick Castellanos could salvage.

“You have any ideas, man?” Castellanos said, when asked what more he could do to help right the ship. “I'm all ears.”

Here are a couple of observations from the Reds’ loss:

Winker, Castellanos keep on mashing

Winker grabbed a piece of Reds history in the third inning, when he smoked a ball off the Power Stacks in center field.

The home run was his fifth of the three-game weekend set, traveling a Statcast-projected 456 feet at 109.2 mph off the bat. Winker is only the third Cincinnati player since 1900 to homer five times in a three-game series -- joining Eric Davis (May 1-3, 1987, vs. the Phillies) and Willie Greene (Sept. 24-26, 1996, vs. the Cubs).

Six innings later, Castellanos capped off his three-RBI day with a two-run homer and in the process, he moved past Winker for the top batting average in the Majors (.356 and .355, respectively).

It was just another example of how well the two hitters atop the Reds’ lineup are swinging the bat this season.

Castellanos and Winker sit Nos. 1 and 2 in the Majors in both average and slugging percentage (Winker leads the latter), and their respective OPS numbers top the National League (Winker at 1.096 and Castellanos at 1.085). Even on a micro-level, the two combined to go 5-for-9 with all four RBIs on Sunday.

“I think both of those guys are so driven to be great. They're very driven to help our team win and contribute, and care tremendously about that,” manager David Bell said. “... There's just no question there about those two guys. They've continued to do that no matter what.”

The Reds had a golden opportunity to close a three-run gap when they loaded the bases and chased Brewers starter Freddy Peralta from the game in the fifth. A Eugenio Suárez strikeout ended the threat, though, and Winker and Castellanos’ heroics couldn’t make up the difference.

“Just keep going,” Castellanos said. “Keep showing up to play and do everything you can to contribute to a ‘W’ somehow.”

Castillo continues to slide

Though Bell said before the finale that his team’s success didn’t boil down to one player, this one really did come down to how Cincinnati starter Luis Castillo began his 10th outing of the year.

And he struggled out of the gate.

Castillo allowed three runs in the first inning, which gave him the worst marks in the Majors in first-inning earned runs (18). He wasn’t fooling many batters, either, as he recorded just a single swinging strike through his first 30 pitches.

“It was just another bad day,” Castillo said through an interpreter. “What more can I say?”

Though he managed to pitch solid second, fourth and fifth innings, a two-run shot by Avisaíl García in the third helped give Castillo the worst ERA (7.61) and WHIP (1.80) among qualified pitchers in MLB. The loss was Castillo’s sixth in a row, which is the most by a Reds pitcher since Homer Bailey’s seven straight losses in 2018.

Bell doesn’t know the solution to Castillo’s issues right now, other than continuing to support him and hope he can turn back into the pitcher who won 15 games in 2019.

“I mean, we need Luis Castillo. He knows that,” Bell said. “And a lot of great players have been through these tough times. The great thing about it is Luis Castillo is still young. He's had success in the league, a lot of it, and we know that he's going to get better going through this.”