Luis Castillo entered the Bottom of the 6th with ~90 pitches logged on the evening, an evening in which he’d long sense shown skipper David Bell that he had full control over the Chicago Cubs. That performance clearly got to Bell, who opted to leave his ace in through a 33 pitch grind that inning, one that paid off with Castillo getting out of a jam and leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 5-3 win over their division rivals.
Castillo’s 123 pitch outing marked the most pitches tossed by a Reds starter since Johnny Cueto accomplished such a feat back in 2015, and certainly felt like a showcase to the rest of the vultures circling the trade market.