Yard Goats' Castellani twirls eight-inning gem

When Ryan Castellani gets aggressive, good things tend to happen. He provided yet another example on Friday.
The Rockies' fifth-ranked prospect allowed five hits and struck out eight over eight innings to earn his fourth straight win as Double-A Hartford blanked New Hampshire, 1-0, at Dunkin' Donuts Park.

Castellani (5-4) relied on his fastball and changeup to control the Fisher Cats lineup. The right-hander set down 12 of the first 13 batters he faced, allowing only a double in the first to fourth-ranked Blue Jays prospectRichard Ureña.
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New Hampshire battled back in the fifth as an error, followed by singles by Tim Lopes and Derrick Loveless, loaded the bases with two outs. However, Castellani fanned Andrew Guillotte on three pitches.
"The thought process was one pitch at a time: focus on this pitch and if I execute it, I'm going to get an out," Castellani said. "[Catcher Dom Nuñez] did a great job of calling throughout that whole situation."
The Arizona native retired the side in order in the sixth and worked around a single by 14th-ranked Toronto prospect Harold Ramirez in the seventh. Despite throwing 95 pitches to that point, he successfully lobbied for a chance to go back out for the eighth.

"When I got inside, [pitching coach Dave] Burba comes over to me and I asked him, 'Am I allowed to go 10 more pitches?' Castellani said. "He said, 'I don't know, are you?' So I said, 'Yeah.'"
Guillotte blooped a one-out single to left, but Urena flied to deep center and Nunez threw out Guillotte trying to steal second to help end Castellani's night. The 21-year-old threw 73 of 104 pitches for strikes and earned his first win in four home starts.
"I felt great all the way through, especially being in a one-run ballgame," he said. "With the crowd, the juices were flowing and I was amped up and just wanted to keep it going."

Since giving up 27 runs over 30 frames in six starts between April 17-May 17, Castellani sports a 1.23 ERA in 22 innings over his last three outings. The 2014 second-round pick has lowered his ERA from a season-high 6.39 on May 6 to 4.57.
"That whole first part of the season was definitely rough, but it taught me a lot," Castellani said. "I needed to work on a couple mechanical things with a few coordinators and my pitching coach throughout this last month or so, clean up a few things. I've used my changeup a little bit more. The biggest thing was fastball command and getting ahead of guys.
"I simply changed my mindset. I've got to go out into the game and trust my stuff and attack because there were a few times where I was thinking a little too much about how to execute a pitch vs. just doing it. I needed to get a little out of my head and just attack and be a pit bull on the mound."
Shane Broyles issued a walk before striking out the final two batters to notch his fourth save.
Correlle Prime homered in the second for the Yard Goats' lone run.
Fisher Cats starter Chris Rowley (2-2) yielded a run on three hits and fanned eight over seven innings.