DETROIT -- The Tigers had every reason to dread facing Luis Castillo for the second time in a week. Some of them were looking forward to it.

They’d seen the 100-mph fastball last Saturday in Cincinnati. They’d chased his pitches out of the zone for 11 strikeouts. They wanted another chance at the Reds All-Star.

“I was kind of excited that I got to face him again,” said Christin Stewart, one of three Tigers with two hits off Castillo in Friday's 7-2 win at Comerica Park. “He had my number over there when we played him at the Reds' place. I got him a couple times tonight, so I was excited.”

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Castillo was initially slated to miss the series. Once the Reds were rained out on Thursday, Castillo moved back a day into the opener, and the Tigers had to adjust.

“It's never going to be easy,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “I mean, that guy's unbelievable. What an arm. What an array of pitches that he's got. It makes it really hard on you. What you try to do is just hang in there as long as you possibly can.”

Hitting coach Joe Vavra could’ve had a week to prepare and not come up with a better approach than what Detroit hitters, especially the bottom of the order, showed in the rematch.

“Aggressive at times, at the right times,” Austin Romine described it.

For three turns through the order, the story was the same. Castillo dominated the top of the Tigers' lineup, but found trouble at the bottom.

"He had great stuff coming out, throwing 100, and the changeup we’ve all seen. Just really great stuff,” Reds manager David Bell said. “He very easily could have thrown a shutout tonight. We give the Tigers credit for battling him and having tough at-bats and finding ways to get on base and get hits and score some runs off maybe one of the best pitchers in baseball, if not possibly the best with that kind of stuff."

Seven of Detroit’s eight hits off Castillo came from the bottom four hitters in the order, as did all five runs. All six of Castillo’s strikeouts came against the other five batters. The Tigers lacked that kind of lineup depth last season.

Castillo retired his first seven batters in order, but a four-pitch walk to Romine and a JaCoby Jones double set up a Niko Goodrum sacrifice fly for the Tigers’ first run.

From there, the trend was set.

“Just having a good plan, trying to get the ball out over the plate and not swinging at balls,” Romine said. “I don't want to hit his pitch. I want to try to get him in the zone that I want to hit. I think we kind of all stuck with that. We were aggressive in the right spots and got some good hits.”

The run broke up an early pitching duel between Castillo and Spencer Turnbull, who held the Reds hitless until former teammate Nick Castellanos’ double sparked a two-run fifth. Given a lead to protect, Castillo came back out to the bottom of the order, where Stewart’s one-out ground-rule double put Detroit’s offense in motion again.

Romine connected with a changeup over the plate for an RBI double to tie it. Jones worked a full count, before sending a 98.1-mph fastball back up the middle for a go-ahead single. The pitches they chased last Saturday in a late-afternoon start were shrugged off in the rematch.

“Just the whole team, our approach this time facing him was just a lot better,” said Stewart, who struck out twice against Castillo last Saturday. “We weren't chasing as much out of the zone. Everyone just stuck to their approach.”

Back-to-back singles from Victor Reyes and Stewart led to add-on runs against Castillo (0-1) in the seventh. Romine worked a full count against Castillo without taking the bat off his shoulder, then went opposite field on a 98.2-mph fastball for an RBI single through the right side.

Castillo still finished with six strikeouts and 22 swinging strikes, compared with 24 last time. But the Tigers put 19 balls in play compared to 13 last Saturday. Their average exit velocity off Castillo on Friday was 91.8 mph, compared with 72.9 mph last time.

Turnbull (1-0) allowed just two runs on three hits over six innings, striking out six for his first win since May 31, 2019. His winless streak ended at 19 starts. It isn’t a stat he puts much stock in, but he appreciated it nonetheless.

“I think it's been a minute since I'd gotten a 'W,' too, so that makes it a little extra sweet,” Turnbull said.