The Atlanta Braves history against Luis Castillo
By James Kunkle
The Atlanta Braves look to close out the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday as they won 1-0 on Wednesday in a historic game 1 of the Wild Card series.
It seems as if the Atlanta Braves got by the toughest part of the three-headed monster that the Cincinnati Reds possess as they won the game that Trevor Bauer started.
However, things will not get much easier on Thursday, and now the Atlanta Braves have to figure out how to win a game not being started by Max Fried.
Reds game two starter Luis Castillo was my preseason Cy Young pick, and while that will not come to fruition, he is still certainly capable of throwing a complete game 2-hitter if the Atlanta Braves are not careful.
For the season, he pitched to a 3.21 ERA and still averaged more than 1 strikeout per inning.
I think most would agree though, that the Atlanta Braves are better suited to hit against the likes of Castillo than they are someone like Trevor Bauer who has better off-speed stuff.
Besides, it can not get much worse offensively than it did Wednesday for the Atlanta Braves.
First off, I expect the exact same lineup for the Atlanta Braves on Thursday. With that being said, let’s get to the history.
- With 14, Marcell Ozuna by far has the most career at bats for any Braves hitters. Over those at-bats, he has 3 career hits with one being a long ball.
- Ronald Acuna is 1 for 3, and Ozzie Albies is 1 for 2.
- Both Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis have gone 3-6 against him.
- Much of the same story as it was with Trevor Bauer. With a young pitcher, just not a lot of career plate appearances against him.
I find it very interesting to note that Atlanta Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud has not registered an at-bat against him. That is surely to change on Thursday afternoon.
The total numbers show an 18 for 47 mark which is a .388 average.
That is obviously very encouraging news for the Atlanta Braves to hopefully score a few more runs on Thursday.
So if history is any indication, it is quite possible the Atlanta Braves might get to clinch a postseason series victory for the first time in a long time.
Let’s hope the offense shows up and the pitching remains as good as it was on Wednesday,