Castillo dazzles again for Blue Rocks

Cristian Castillo may not be the biggest name on his pitching staff, but he's opening eyes with his work.
Kansas City's left-handed prospect turned in his second eight-inning scoreless start in his last five outings, scattering three hits and striking out six without a walk as Class A Advanced Wilmington topped Potomac, 3-1, on Sunday.

"Castillo never gives in," Blue Rocks manager Jamie Quirk told bluerocks.com. "He has the ability to use his changeup, breaking ball and fastball. He has a great mix of pitches and he pitches backwards, as they say in baseball. People ask me, 'Can he pitch?' I say if you put him in a big league game today, he would pitch the same exact way. He won't get hyped up, he won't try to do more. He does what he does, and he does it very well."
Castillo worked with a lead from the start, thanks to Blue Rocks leadoff man D.J. Burt's hustle on the basepaths. Burt singled to right field, swiped second and later scored on a caught stealing error by Potomac third baseman Dan Gamache.
Box score
With the advantage, Castillo was locked in from his first frame. The lefty allowed singles by Rhett Wiseman with one out in the third and Gamache with one gone in the fourth. Following Gamache's hit, the southpaw retired 11 in a row.
"I felt really good warming up in the bullpen," Castillo told the site. "Then when I came to the mound, I felt really good and I had all my pitches working. The defense really helped me a lot and the offense did its job to help out. I tried to work outside, but the last two or three innings of my start, I started to attack the inside part of the plate."
The 22-year-old utilized the defense to get his job done. Castillo struck out at least one batter in four innings, but recorded seven outs on the ground and nine in the air. After Dale Carey singled to lead off the bottom of the eighth, Castillo set down the final three batters he faced in order.

"I don't worry about it when Castillo has base runners on," Quirk said to the site. "Potomac had some traffic on the bases today, but he finds a way to get out of it and make pitches. He's very fun to watch, sit back and let him do his thing. He never gets shelled or blows up. You just sit back and watch, if it gets a little hairy, he makes his pitches and gets out of it."
Over his last five outings, Castillo has gone 3-1 with a 1.59 ERA, striking out 24 while walking six in 34 innings. Working in a rotation with ranked Royals such as Kansas City's No. 4 prospectScott Blewett, No. 10 A.J. Puckett  and No. 20 Foster Griffin, Castillo sports the lowest ERA of the group at 2.61 following his 17th start. 
"I really like to have different ways to attack batters when I face them a second or third time," Castillo told the site. "I know during after their first at-bats, they will go back to their plan of attack and that's why I like to change it on my end. It really helps me out, because usually they will be waiting for certain pitches and I change my approach on the mound."
Reliever Jacob Bodner gave up an RBI groundout by No. 30 Washington prospectIan Sagdal in the ninth, but picked up his third save.