HEADLINE

Streaking Brewers eye sweep of Reds

Field Level Media

April 03, 2019 at 7:55 am.

The Cincinnati Reds will turn to their young ace to try to end a three-game losing streak, while the Milwaukee Brewers are going even younger in looking to extend their early-season winning streak to five.

The Brewers, who have beaten the Reds 4-3 on consecutive nights, will send 22-year-old right-hander Freddy Peralta to the mound on Wednesday afternoon in search of a sweep at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

The Reds are countering with their Opening Day starter, Luis Castillo, a 26-year-old in his third season in the majors.

Facing the Pirates on March 28, Castillo showed off his changeup, striking out eight in 5 2/3 innings. He allowed two hits and walked three in what proved to be a no-decision.

With the Reds leading 1-0, manager David Bell pulled Castillo after he gave up a two-out single in the top of the sixth and with a pitch count of 91. Reliever Jared Hughes gave up consecutive hits, and the Pirates took a 2-1 lead, but the Reds went on to a 5-3 win.

Deeper into the season, Castillo might stay in the game in that situation, Bell told reporters.

“He hadn’t been to that point but one time in spring training,” Bell said. “We thought he was going to finish that inning, and that would have been it for him. But he got a base-runner on. We trust our bullpen so much.”

Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said the Pirates knew all about Castillo’s off-speed stuff, saying it was “as advertised.”

“It’s not that we weren’t expecting it. The degree of difficulty to hit it was probably as solid as we’ve seen from him,” Hurdle said.

Castillo has faced the Brewers four times, spanning 26 1/3 innings. He is 2-1 with a 3.08 ERA and has 34 strikeouts and seven walks.

Peralta is looking to extend his game as well. In his rookie season in 2018, when he went 6-4 with a 4.25 ERA, he went at least six innings in half of his 14 starts.

In his 2019 season debut against the Cardinals, however, he went only three-plus innings, giving up four runs on six hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

It started badly, when the Cardinals’ Paul Goldschmidt won a 10-pitch duel with Peralta by smacking a two-run home run in the first inning, the first of Goldschmidt’s three homers in an eventual 9-5 St. Louis victory.

“I’ve been throwing too many pitches early in the game,” Peralta said, noting that he threw almost half of his total of 80 pitches for the game in the first inning. “That’s going to get me out of the game quick.”

Manager Craig Counsell said he is “still waiting for that start where [Peralta] goes deep in a game and shuts the other team down. But he kept us in the ballgame.”

In four games against the Reds in his brief career, Peralta is 1-1 with a 4.15 ERA. In Cincinnati, however, he is 0-1 in two starts with a 7.71 ERA.

Another question for the Brewers is the availability of hard-throwing lefty reliever Josh Hader. Hader saved the Monday and Tuesday games, giving him four saves among the Brewers’ five wins.

Last season, Hader pitched on back-to-back days only five times in the regular season. Could he pitch a third straight day?

“I wouldn’t tell you no,” Counsell said late Tuesday night.

Milwaukee has won 15 of its last 21 games against Cincinnati.

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