In a bygone era where some baseball front offices still valued the concepts of wins and earned run average as gospel, the Cincinnati Reds managed to flip Dan Straily to the Miami Marlins for a fireballing young pitching prospect named Luis Castillo. Castillo, in turn, gave the Reds 792.1 IP across six seasons, 17.8 bWAR, and became one of the faces of the franchise during his era.
It’s somewhat crazy to think that he spent nearly as long in Seattle as he did in Cincinnati. Flipped in 2022 to the Mariners
during the last big Cincinnati rebuild, he threw 718.0 IP for the M’s before being sent to the Chicago White Sox last week prior to the August 3rd trade deadline. The Sox need veterans who can soak up late-season IP, and that’s precisely the role Castillo finds himself in as he inches closer to his 34th birthday later this year.
La Piedra gets the start for the Sox against the Reds tonight in Chicago in the second game of this three-game series, one where the Reds roared back to claim a 5-4 victory just last night. Castillo will share the mound to start with Rhett Lowder, who has poured in three straight rock solid outings after being shelled in a start in Coors Field in his return to the rotation in late July.
First pitch is set for 7:40 PM ET. Here’s how both clubs will line up to start, including the Reds giving Michael Toglia a start at 1B and mercifully keeping Ke’Bryan Hayes on the pine:
