Castillo punches first win of 2020 in Game 1

Though less emphasis is placed on pitcher wins in modern times than has been in the past, they’re still important to at least one person on a baseball team: the one standing on the mound.

With that in mind, congratulations, Luis Castillo. You’re officially on the board.

Castillo, one of the Cincinnati's big three starters that will make them a formidable opponent should they reach October, was the winning pitcher for the first time this season in the Reds’ 4-2 win over the Pirates on Friday afternoon in the first game of a seven-inning doubleheader at PNC Park.

• Box score

“Very emotional,” Castillo said. “We battled hard throughout the game, not just myself, but the team as well. So it's a good victory all around, but I'm very emotional.”

With the win, Castillo snapped his personal three-game losing streak, and he received one more run of support in this outing than he did in all three prior losses combined. He also benefited from a solid defense behind him, something that has often been lacking in his past outings.

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Castillo worked out of trouble several times over the course of his six innings. The Pirates had runners on second and third and no outs in the second but did not score, thanks in part to a key relay between Eugenio Suárez and Curt Casali that thwarted Colin Moran’s sprint home on a grounder from Ke’Bryan Hayes.

Castillo pointed to that inning as a springboard for the rest of his outing.

“When I was able to get the three outs afterwards, that's when I really got my confidence back,” he said. “I felt really good throughout the game, but it was really that bottom of the second, when I got those three outs afterwards, that I knew that I had it today.”

Another key moment arrived in a fifth frame that could have cut short Castillo’s outing had he struggled with the meat of the Pirates’ order. With action in the Reds’ bullpen, Kevin Newman struck out and Bryan Reynolds lined out. Up came Moran, who singled in each of his first two at-bats, to try to keep the inning alive and possibly chase Castillo from the game.

Moran looked at a 98-mph fastball down the middle of the plate without a swing for strike three.

Casali surmised that Moran was “just guessing up there” in the first two at-bats and was likely looking for a changeup in the last one.

“I think both of us realized that and just decided to throw the ball down the middle,” Casali said. “He made a nice pitch, but I think it was pretty clear that Colin was sitting on a changeup.

“We hadn't really landed one in the zone all day, and I think we just ... [decided to] throw one right down the middle-upper zone, and if you hit it, good for you, but I don't think you're going to swing.”

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Castillo went back out for the sixth inning, in which he struck out two more. The right-hander finished with eight strikeouts and that long-awaited first win.

And yes, that long-lived metric still means something to him.

“Going into a game, you have to have that confidence that you're going to win that game, regardless,” Castillo said. “So for me, it is important that we win. Especially if I'm going in and saying, ‘OK, I'm going to win. My team is going to win as well.’ So I think that's still important.”