McCoy: Castellanos, De Leon lead Reds to third straight win

On Monday night in Great American Ball Park, Castellanos broke a tie game in  the seventh inning with his third home run in four games.

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It was 2-2 when Nimble Nick connected, the Reds scored two in the eighth to record an eventual 5-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And the Reds showed the other side of a winning equation: pitching. After bombarding the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-6 and 12-1, the Reds used Castellanos and solid pitching to put this one away.

Jose De Leon, making his first start in five years, gave up two home runs in the first inning to Phillip Evans and Colin Moran.

Then nothing more. He gave up one more hit until he walked the leadoff hitter in the sixth. The bullpen took over and the Pirates were placed in total darkness.

“I was able to settle in after those two solo shots,” said DeLeon. “Solo shots won’t kill you. I went out with a different edge in the second inning. I was more aggressive, and I took it (the home runs) personally.

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“I was commanding the ball well with my fastball,” he added. He was commanding so dominantly that he needed only five pitches to cover the fourth inning.

Three Reds relief pitchers each painted 1-2-3 innings, nine up and nine down by Cionel Perez, Sean Doolittle and Lucas Sims. Amir Garrett pitched a shaky ninth before locking it down.

Starter De Leon, with his mother, father and brother in the stands, watching him pitch for the first time in two years, held the Pirates to two runs, three hits, two walks and a career-tying nine strikeouts.

To add spice to his night, De Leon punched his first career hit to right field in the second inning, also his first RBI to cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 2-1.

“I was so excited I didn’t even hear the announcer say that was my first hit,” he said. “The first base umpire said, ‘Hey, tip your cap.’”

The Reds tied it in the fifth, 2-2, when Mike Moustakas launched one so far it needed a passport before it landed, a 430-foot home run to right field.

Pittsburgh left hander Sam Howard had a full count on Castellanos with one out in the seventh. As soon as he connected, the volatile Castellanos flipped his bat and turned toward the Reds dugout, screaming at them, as he began his trot around the bases.

And it was his 500th career RBI.

“What a great accomplishment, 500 RBI,” said manager David Bell. “That’s a lot of RBI and he is still a young player. And it came in a big way, a big hit for us.”

The Reds added two runs in the eighth on a run-scoring single by Jonathan India and a run-scoring double to Aristides Aquino.

They were needed.

“India and Aquino came up with big hits for runs and they were so important at the end of a game and they came into play tonight, for sure,” said Bell.

Amir Garrett, making his first appearance in the ninth, gave up a leadoff home run to Bryan Reynolds and a single to Moran.

Then he settled in by striking out Eric Stallings, coaxing a fielder’s choice grounder from Gregory Polanco and … he walked Jacob Stallings on a full count.

That put the potential tying run on base … second and first with two outs. The Pirates sent Kevin Newman up to pinch-hit, a guy who hit .606 during spring training. Newman grounded to short and the Reds had their first save, a wobbly one by Garrett, a third straight victory and a 3-1 record.

“Cionel (Perez), Lucas (Sims) and Sean (Doolittle) were all outstandiing,” Bell said of his bullpen.

“And you know what? Amir (Garrett)? He got the job done,” said Bell. “It is never easy, it’s a tough job pitching in the ninth and he got it done. He can take that and use and know what he needs to do next time. We know who Amir is and we won the game and he got the save. In my book, it was a successful outing for him.”