Nick Castellanos set a career-high with seven runs batted in, including a dramatic seventh-inning grand slam, to lead the Cincinnati Reds to a 12-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies at Great American Ball Park.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia Philllies (36-40) | 4 | 8 | 1 |
| Cincinnati Reds (39-38) |
12 | 12 | 0 |
| W: Hembree (2-3) L: Feliz (0-1) |
|||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
With the Reds down, 4-2, in the bottom of the seventh, the bases loaded and two out, Castellanos smashed a Neftali Feliz fastball into the Reds bullpen in center field to give his team a 6-4 lead. The key moment reversed some poor offensive performance over the previous 15 innings, and prompted “M-V-P” chants from the crowd at G-A-B-P.
Phillies rookie lefthander Bailey Falter became the latest southpaw to render the Cincinnati offense ineffective. Entering the game in the bottom of the third, Falter definitely did not. In four innings, he allowed only two hits, one walk and one run while striking out six Reds. But his righthanded bullpen mates did not fare as well.
After Feliz’s seventh-inning problems, another veteran righty, Enyel de los Santos, surrendered six runs in the eighth. The Phillies’ flammable bullpen — with the notable exclusion of Falter — lived up to its reputation.
The importance of Castellanos’ clutch grand slam should not be underestimated. As some here at Redleg Nation were saying during the game in the game thread, with the offense sputtering, that it’s time for the Reds to pack it in for the season, the Redlegs showed that they never give up. It’s a super-endearing trait that you don’t find every day in professional sports.
The win pulls Cincinnati, temporarily, to within 5.5 games of first-place Milwaukee and 2.5 behind second-place Chicago. Those two teams are facing off tonight, so the Reds will gain another half-game on one of those teams for sure.
The Offense
Castellanos got the Reds on the board in the third inning:
Nicholas Castellanos ? pic.twitter.com/rybxS8WfMc
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) June 28, 2021
It didn’t take long for Alejo Lopez to record his first major-league hit when he came up to pinch-hit in the seventh inning:
Alejo only needed one pitch to get his first big league hit??
Congrats, @alejo_lopez9. ? pic.twitter.com/Fnhm4TMgQQ
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) June 29, 2021
Then, after an Aristides Aquino walk and Jesse Winker hit by pitch …
? A NICK CASTELLANOS GRAND SLAM ? pic.twitter.com/Rl4t0WEeXU
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) June 29, 2021
Two of the six eighth-inning runs came on de los Santos’ throwing error on a sacrifice bunt by Kyle Farmer, and another came on a Castellanos’ double that resulted in his seventh RBI of the night. Joey Votto smashed his ninth homer into the moon deck in right field to round out the scoring and cap a two-hit night.
The Pitching
Wade Miley didn’t have his best stuff or location, but gutted through six innings in which he allowed eight hits, three walks and four runs. When pitchers have nights like that, the objective is to battle enough to keep your team in the game, and he did that.
Heath Hembree held the Phillies scoreless in the seventh, and Ryan Hendrix did the same in the eighth. Josh Osich mopped up in the ninth.
Notes Worth Noting
Family first, as it should be …
Barnhart has a tradition of writing his wife and his two son's initials in the dirt right before each game. pic.twitter.com/5KDSgzAf3k
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) June 28, 2021
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
San Diego Padres at Cincinnati Reds
Tuesday, June 29, 7:10 p.m. ET
Ray Snell (3-3, 5.29 ERA) vs Tony Santillan (1-1, 3.29 ERA)
BeeGees playing in my head.. Stayin Alive. Great game
Castellanos was THE MAN. But the hustle that India showed scoring from 1st up 8-4 already to get THE MAN another RBI on the night on that double didn’t go unnoticed by me or by THE MAN. Guaranteed.
I really love this team.
Great night for Reds fans.
Good to win a laugher against Philly after losing in a laugher ot then earlier
Great memory for Alejo Lopez also!
The team never stops fighting. Very happy for Lopez. Following him through all the levels of the minors, it’s fun to see him make his debut.
great night by the team. Nick is an absolute stud. We need to resign him to market value. Miley didn’t have his best stuff but he turned in a very veteran start – keeping us within range of a comeback. I’ll take 4 runs and 6 innings any night in the regular season. Bullpen did its job and way to go Alejo – love to see the kid just keep on hitting! There should always be room for a player that can hit .360 over a fairly good sample size. Kudos to the front office for rewarding production at triple A.
Four runs in six innings equates to an ERA of 6.00, and you find that something you’ll take any night? You must love the bullpen. They’ve been pitching to an ERA near 6.00 all year!
I loved watching tonight, was a little bummed because I didn’t get home until the 6’th but like the Reds I got energized with Lopez’s hit. And what can you say about Castellanos. What I say is open up the wallet Bob and get him to sign a contract. I know a lot of people wanted the Reds to sign Bauer but I personally am against signing a pitcher to any type of long term large contract, too much can go wrong. But Castellanos is a player who has a solid history and is now in his prime. He is the leader the Reds have needed for awhile. In the next couple of years we have the pitching coming but if they don’t sign Castellanos and he opts out then all you lose a major, major part of this offense. Come on Bob, he is putting fans in the seats and he has people watching their TV’s. Sign him and let us know you want to have a winner in Cincinnati.
Lindor got $341 mil/10 years and his best season was a .871 ops
Nick has a 1.002 ops so you can see what the Reds are up against.
They’re on the books already for Votto, Moose, Suarez, and Shogo and grossly overpaying all of them for their production.
I agree with everything you just said but, it still needs to be done. I am not against trading Suarez, not sure what they would get for him but his contract is not that bad to be a deterrent. And we have several options at third that are producing better, and he is a liability at short. Perhaps someone would pick him up hoping he will find his stroke (And I hope he does) Votto is still producing, not at the clip he was but still has value to the team. Moose and Shogo we are just going to have to live with.
Lindor was younger and significantly better defensively. Both of those are enormous factors.
Castellanos is going to get paid, but he won’t get close to half of what Lindor got.
Maybe not. Castellanos knows that GABP plays a factor in his numbers. Striking a balance between max salary and location might play with him. And the massive contracts and extravagant spending hasn’t delivered a championship yet. Maybe sanity will creep back into the FA market. I saw that TV markets are down for the league. Bauer, Lindor, style contracts may be harder to come by.
Indy, for a long time, the Reds underpaid Votto for his production. So his contract hurts now but at one point, it was a huge value to the team. However, he’s the only one of the group who was ever remotely worth his long term deal.
If the Reds attendance was 1m more fans a year, like St Louis, the reds could sign Castellanos to a new deal and prevent him from walking. But I don’t think they have the cash.
Doug,
I’m guessing you mean the $340 mil part because he’s def getting more then half of the $34 mi;/year. I’m guessing $135/5 years or something atleast. Look at the Yankees alone….Stanton/Judge one or both is always hurt and they have nothing at the other 2 spots. They could cough up $150/5 yrs no problem if they wanted to.
Not to mention there is a gazillion Italian-Americans on the East coast so Castellanos could be the next Joe DiMaggio. I’m calling it now. The Yankees are going to unload the Brinks trucks for Nick.
I love Nick and what he brings. I agree with Indy. He’s played himself onto the dodgers or Yankees. He’s too rich for this team even if next year were similar.
Tom,
I have to respectfully disagree. I don’t know how $25/mil a year is underpaying someone? Everyone has rookie deals & arbitration to deal with, but then Joey started knocking down $25/mil a year and his best attribute was that he walked alot. He had the gabp left-center stroke going for alot of cheap hrs too. If he played in LA he would’ve been a glorified Adrian Gonzalez. A hr that makes the first few rows in the LF stands in gabp wouldn’t even make the track in LA, SD, or SF. Or Wrigley either for 4 months of the 6.
Don’t get me wrong, he was a great player, but that contract was and is insane for a small market team. It basically guts them every year on what they can do.
It’s underpaying someone when they are worth more than that.
The contract only “guts” the team because the ownership group doesn’t spend more money. That’s on them, not on Votto.
Fangraphs values Joey Votto’s career as being worth $414M to this point. He hasn’t quite made half of that number in his career. (here’s the link: https://www.fangraphs.com/players/joey-votto/4314/stats?position=1B#value)
Its very possible the Reds will have to trade the first half MVP. It would be the smart thing to do so the Reds probably will let him walk.
Tom, you’re exactly right. Votto has already been worth his entire contract. It’s been spelled out time and time again, the math has been shown plenty of times, yet people still wanna complain about it. It gets old.
Season is not over. What is Castellanos best season? Compare on equivalent bases, not a full season to a half season.
Thanks for the backup Doug.
As for the team spending more money, I’m not sure the team had the extra money prior to the new cable deal.
Bob C said the strategy from the beginning was similar to what they did St Louis – play winning baseball and invest heavily on the fan experience – all to boost attendance up by about a million a year. St Louis draws about a million more butts to seats a year.
While revenue went up from $171m in 2007 to over $200m in 2012 to $276m in 2019. But those million more fans never materialized.
Then the club had $114m in revenue in 2020 leading to a $80m loss that the ownership group had to cover. This is an ownership group who’s never taken a profit or shareholder distribution.
From what I understand, it takes about $50m to simply operate the club.
Up until 2019, it didn’t leave a lot of room for free agents. But in 2019, the Reds made some big deals, two have which have worked out well – Castellanos and Miley. But I think the financial loss shell shocked the ownership group.
Now that we’re emerging from Covid, maybe the Reds will keep adding payroll – let’s hope.
There’s a whole lot going on with your reply Tom…..
First, why should the fans care one bit about how much profit the ownership group is making on a year-to-year basis? Since they bought in their investment has quadrupled – they just haven’t sold it yet. They’ll be more than compensated when they (or their family) does. And it’s also taking the ownership group at face value that they aren’t taking any profit or shareholder money – which isn’t true. That’s the claim they made for a while, but when MLB sold off parts of MLBAM to Disney, that money did go to the ownership group according to Bob Castellini. Of course, just like many other organizations that say things like “we never profit”, the devil is in the details. How many of these owners are Reds “employees”, too? What’s their salary? You think Bob Castellini as the CEO is working for free? Or do you think he’s paying himself a 7-figure salary? We don’t really know the answer, but I’ve got a good idea of which one of those two things is far more likely based on everything we’ve ever known about CEO’s.
But what it also ignores is that sometimes as a business owner you need to actually invest in your business beyond just “let’s break even” as a way to grow and expand your business. Sometimes that means you need to “lose money” to buy that new machinery to get your factory production up to where it needs to be so you can output more product in the next 2-5 years. Or in the case of baseball, win more games because you have better talent over the next 2-5 years and as a result, boost attendance and reap the benefits that come from that. But that’s not how the Reds want to operate. They want to have their cake and eat it too.
Everything that Doug said, I am in agreement with, if the Reds want to sign Castellanos they can. Votto’s contract is not the deterrent. It is the willingness of the ownership to put their money.
And I am not an accountant or even a bookkeeper but just because revenue was down doesn’t mean that Reds took a loss. They just didn’t make as much profit.
Correct me if I am wrong but “Castellanos” is a Hispanic name not an Italian name. He also is from Florida with its strong Cuban influence. This however, does not downplay any interest from the Yankees or any other upper crust, money bag ball clubs.
Indy, not that it matters a hill of beans but I’m pretty sure Nick’s mother is Colombian, at least according to public reports. And his father is Jorge, not a common Italian spelling. So marketing him as Italian-American may be off a bit. Regardless, I’d rather see him marketed as a d?mn good ball player without any added labels. As for the millions of new fans not materializing, the team has to win sometimes not just “invest in the fan experience”. Since Castellini and the ownership group’s acquisition of the Reds, the Cardinals have had ONE losing season, 2 World Series victories, and has missed the playoffs only 6 times in 15 years. The Reds….
Yeah, I’m pretty sure he’s not Italian-American.
His name is of Hispanic origin (so is his accent), and he is from South Florida. Not sure about his specific lineage.
Doesn’t matter. The guy rakes. If he’ll stay, I don’t want to give him up!
Doug,
It doesn’t change the finances if the fans care or not.
But the financial constraints are quite real.
First, the owners just invested an extra $80m into the club to cover the 2020 loss.
Also, the owners have massively invested in the fan experience over the last decade — an investment that largely has not paid off in a boost to attendance.
Additional investments in payroll would be tough for this ownership group and specifically Bob C. Bob has a net worth of $400m — making him the least wealthy MLB team owner. It’s not clear how much of that is liquid but it becomes apparent that if he’s not taking profits, tied up $230m of his own money, that doesn’t leave a lot to additionally invest in payroll. Plus, he’d be out of money and need to sell the team.
Now, there’s no doubt Bob C will make a lot of money when he sells — probably turning his original investment into close to a billion dollars. But that money only materializes in a liquidating event — a sale.
So, another argument is that if Bob C doesn’t have the liquid cash, he should sell the team. The issue there is that Cincinnati isn’t stocked full of billionaires. The pool of potential owners includes a lot of people who would have no connection or loyalty to the team or the City of Cincinnati. There’s quite a bit of risk associated with a sale.
Again, it doesn’t matter if fans care about any of this. I mean, the team basically exists so we can complain about it. For me, I’m simply grateful there’s an ownership group that is connected to the city and and who is willing to tie up their wealth to keep the team stable and in town.
The bats came alive! I thought we had a chance when they put Felix in because he hasn’t been in the bigs for years and we just needed to see a righty anyway.
Great memory for Lopez and Nick too. Not sure what to think of this team? I don’t think the front office knows what to think either? We’ll know more after the 7 straight vs the Brewers. In the meantime, just put yourself into position to be in position. You don’t want to have to win 5 or 6 of 7 vs Milw just to get close because thats not easy.
Yikes … Milwaukee dropping a ten spot on the Cubs in the 8th to break the 4 -4 tie
Good win, as a result we also win another series. It will be interesting to see if Lopez gets a start tomorrow. Obviously can no longer run Heineman out there (shame). Could we see Suarez and his improved D at SS?
Oooooh boy. Let’s hope not. 3B is his PERMANENT position. I want to see Lopez play too.
Saurez along with Farmer still lead the team in games played and given his lack of production vs LHP should get tomorrow off. Give Lopez the hot corner go ahead slot him in at #2
Fortune favors the bold!
Listening to Bell’s pregame, the most likely scenario is Lopez is a bench player with a few starts here and there. Lets hope Lopez continues to force the hand of the organization.
His improved D is as a third baseman. He had a couple of excellent years as a defender at third awhile ago, but has never been a good SS.
Yep…and has got much worse as time goes one I might add.
My question is: What would another team be willing to give up for a half-season Castellanos rental? I wonder if the Reds could trade him by August and actually get a decent piece back in return. He’s not going to be here next year. Cash in while the stock is high. He could be the missing piece that could make a contender a WS favorite. The Reds desperately need young SS and OF players. If Castellanos could be traded for either of those, the Reds would be foolish not to do it.
Likewise, the Reds should be looking to trade Gray. This team is good now, but it’s not built to last. The Reds have struck gold with Casty and Gray, time to cash those chips for the future. Don’t let this turn into another Chapman/Frazier type situation.
I agree 100%! Reds could have 8 real good starters next year. Trade one or 2 and go with the youth movement.Casty has absolutely got to go.(unfortunately). castillo,miley,gray,mahle,greene,lodolo,santilian,guiterez. 2 of these can go to build pen and get a SS along with the Casty haul.
Barrero may be SS of the future anyway. If Castellanos enjoys this team as much as it appears he does then perhaps he is actually amenable to a five year contract? Obviously no room for one of Moustakis or Suarez Also admit Akiyama is a mistake and move on
Also Aquino may be a tradable chip since he is still young but cannot make consistent contact and again it must be Aquino or the oft injured Senzel. No room for both RH bats. BTW our right handed bats continue with the Reds long tradition of not being able to hit good lefties.
The really good news is that the bullpen will be much stronger with return of Hoffman and Lorenzen as well as one of Santillan or Guiterrez
DFA Doolittle and bring up Moreta from AA. He is the least dependable of our league worst BP
I’m still on this train. While this Reds team doesn’t quit and fights until the end, there’s still a lot to overcome. Even with overcoming injuries and staying afloat recently, they’re sitting at 12.5% odds of making the playoffs. We can be all Han Solo and “never tell me the odds” or we could repeat the refrain “I have a bad feeling about this”. The bullpen puts them in a bad position and I just don’t see how they fix that this year without making a bunch of trades and relying on highly touted rookies (Greene, Lodolo, etc). They’re getting nothing from the SS position and Suarez is still floundering.
FWIW, MLBTR wrote they believe the Reds can get more for Castellanos at the trade deadline than the value of a comp. pick. I believe that’s true. If not, then simply don’t trade him, but someone will pony up more for the chance to add him to a late season run.
I agree were not half way through the year, and we are 1 game over 500. Before the deadline the Reds play (7) games against the Brewers (3) against the Cardinals, and (6) against the Cubs.
+100 for the Star Wars reference.
We have young shortstops coming up now, and a pretty good set of outfielders already, why would you give away an MVP candidate for those positions, not to mention the fact that we are above 500 at this point and still in contention.
The Reds’ young talent and pitching depth has energized the team and that is something we haven’t seen for a long time.They went all in last year with the 3 guys they acquired and really went all in with the length of the deals now must figure out a way to undo those big mistakes.Moose and Shogo’s money would be nice to have to try and sign Casty but its just not reality.Just too many holes and no money to fix it with so much being owed.Down the road in 2024 this team could be really good and have the money to plug the holes.Until then they must be very smart and get what they can for Casty and maybe package some salary that isn’t producing with some of their surplus of starting pitching to acquire more youth.Can’t wait and let all this stuff just play out if the process can be sped up.Money fixes it sooner but I don’t see Bob adding more on to what he already owes.
If the Reds did trade Castellanos at the deadline, what return would he bring?
Crippling depression.
Stop trading away good players to try and build for a future and just start acquiring good players and win now.
+1
Brewers are winning at a .582 clip.
Reds seem to always be within a few games of .500
I can’t see Krall and Castellini as sellers at the deadline- even if the Brewers are around 62-46 and the Reds are around 54-54 with the Reds being 7-9 games back.
It would take the brew Crew at 20 over- say 64-44 and running away with the division and the Reds 5-6 under .500 at say 51-57 and 12-13 games back for the Reds to be sellers at the deadline and trade Castellanos with 50+ games to play.
The Reds got the #30 overall pick for Bauer signing with the Dodgers at over $50 million. With the competitive balance pick at #35, the Reds could land of haul good young baseball players with the 2021 draft with picks #17,30,35,53,89.
If Castellanos opts out and the Reds get another #30 pick, that may be the way to go and let the draft in 2021/22 pump the organization full of prospect capital. Suarez is the only player signed past 2023. Its not that far away. Just don’t sign anymore old guys past their prime to big contracts.
If the Reds tank in July and are 12 games back, then sure, start selling. I don’t see that happening with the SP and hitting.
I don’t see them as sellers either but they should be.Reds always believe they can even when they can’t because selling signals we give up.We know what has happened with that way of doing business.They end of getting no value out of players that have value because they hold on to them too long and they get older and more costly and less productive but must play because of what they make.Reds can set themselves up for better days by selling guys that have value and hope they can package some guys with them who have big salaries.Doug is right about management they want to squeeze every nickel out of every player and every team possible without any long term commitment to winning.
Doug is right about this, too: Stop selling players and instead try to actually get better players. Prior to 2 years ago who was the largest free agent signing ever by the Cincinnati Reds in terms of total money paid out? The answer was Francisco Cordero. It was the only contract the team ever signed a free agent to that was for more than $30M.
Go out and sign quality players and don’t stop. You don’t have to sign Francisco Lindor (but hey, that’s not the worst idea, either). But you have to actually try and sign actual good players, too. Until two years ago that Reds simply hadn’t done that in 20+ years. They signed some guys who had breakout and or good years with them – but they never actually went out and committed money to safe bets to be good players. And the results have been clear as day: You can’t win that way unless you’re pretty much better than the rest of the league in every other facet of the game, and you get lucky along the way with the health of your players. Stop rebuilding. Start expanding and adding on.
Hear, hear! The idea that a team in contention would even consider trading Castellanos is rubbish, IMO. If the Reds crater in the next two or three weeks, are completely out of it, and Castellanos has rejected what they consider their best offer to keep him around, then I can see it. Not that I would be in favor of operating that way, but I could at least understand that it’s a front office that is intent on operating like a small-market franchise.
Doug this is a meritorious idea.
Who is available right now for them to get that makes them better?
Or should said acquisitions be in the off-season?
Do we think the money will be spent more wisely now than it was in the Dodgers “trade” in 2019, or in signing Moustakas and Shogo to solve short-term problems that the team doesn’t have anymore?
Not trying to argue—just pointing out the painful points for me, that have eroded almost all of my trust in the leadership of my favorite baseball team
Consider the current message from the front office for Reds players: A lot of you are hurt, so we’re going to wait for those hurt guys to return to see if we truly are any good. Then, if we are, we MIGHT try to find some additional help for you guys. (But then, we might not.)
And to fans: If you would pay your way into the stadium in droves, it might make enough difference in our balance sheet to make us consider spending some money on additional talent. (But then, we might not.)
I will detour into another sport for this point: Years ago when Carson Palmer “retired” from the Bengals while he was under contract for $10-plus-million per year, it infuriated me that I, as a fan, cared more about whether the team won or lost than the team’s “best player.” It’s clear at this point that financial statements are more important to Bob Castellini than winning or losing. If this team continues to play well enough on the field to contend and the front office does nothing to help, not only is this season meaningless, but the entire “rebuild” period was meaningless.
+1
Mr. Mitsoff you’re a mind-reader!
Amen to all you posted above
I don’t disagree with you, but it’s worth noting this approach has recently saddled the Reds with a couple of contracts that they probably wish they didn’t have (Moose/Shogo). So that approach isn’t foolproof either. I do hope they take the money “saved” by dumping relievers and use that at deadline buying out Story types using more cash than farm pieces as I’m still convinced the only way for extended success in a small market is to draft/develop. Trading pieces every year while hoping for a playoff berth is really not going to work. As it pertains to trades, sell high buy low. I just hope the front office measures the market accurately.
Nothing is foolproof, though.
You have to draft. You have to develop. You have to sign free agents. You’ve got to get really lucky when it comes to keeping your difference makers healthy. You have to do it all. It’s the only way.
That pitch Castellanos hit the slam on was right on the outside corner black. He has incredible plate coverage! DO NOT TRADE HIM AND GIVE HIM EVERY REASON NOT TO OPT OUT!! We need the guy around for awhile!
If you can keep Castellanos, then by all means. Keep the man, up his contract, extend him.
The problem is the Reds wouldn’t even commit 6 million to Archie Bradley. Castellanos will get 130-150 over 5-6 years on the open market. What makes us think they will spend that much on Castellanos?
I’d love it if they did and then also spent on quality free agent relievers. I just don’t think they will. I don’t see the Reds right now bumping up to a 150-175+ payroll. That’s the rub.
So it comes down to the value of the comp pick vs the value of the return at the deadline. Deadline will be better.
The difference, although I don’t know if it means anything to ownership is that Castellanos is an everyday player, Bradley and Iglesias only pitched an inning every now and then. I would however liked to have kept Bradley, but then again I believe he got hurt and hasn’t pitched this year. The bullpen issues this year is not that they allowed Bradley to walk and traded Iglesias. It is one they got nothing for Iglesias and never really looked to replace either one with a decent option.