Luis Castillo carries Reds to win over Braves

Jesse Winker homered for the first time in nearly three weeks and Luis Castillo threw seven shutout innings as the Cincinnati Reds beat the visiting Atlanta Braves 4-1 on Saturday.

With the wind gusting out to left, Winker crushed an Ian Anderson fastball 435 feet to the seats in right-center for a 1-0 Cincinnati lead in the first. It was Winker’s team-leading 18th homer and first since his three-homer game June 6 at St. Louis.

Winker, who made a diving attempt for a Ronald Acuna Jr. double in the third, left the game after five innings due to a right hip contusion.

Amir Garrett closed out the game with a scoreless ninth for his fifth save in seven chances.

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Saturday’s game featured a pitching rematch of Game 2 of last season’s Wild Card series as Anderson squared off against Castillo. In that game last Oct. 1, Anderson allowed just two hits and struck out six over six scoreless innings as the Braves advanced with a 5-0 win.

On Saturday, Castillo (3-10) turned the tables, matching a season high with seven scoreless innings, allowing six hits and striking out six.

The Reds flashed some exceptional defense in the sixth. Following a Guillermo Heredia single with two outs, William Contreras doubled down the line in right but Nick Castellanos fielded, threw to India, who fired a strike to catcher Tucker Barnhart to nail Heredia at the plate and end the inning.

India singled and scored on a Castellanos double to deep center in the third. Castellanos came around to score on a Joey Votto single to right, extending Cincinnati’s lead to 3-0.

Anderson (5-4) settled down to retire the final 10 batters he faced before coming out of the game after six innings, allowing five hits and three runs while striking out nine.

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Heredia’s single to left off reliever Brad Brach scored Ozzie Albies to get Atlanta on the board in the eighth before Tyler Stephenson connected for his fifth homer to restore Cincinnati’s three-run lead.

–Field Level Media