Joey Cantillo strikes out seven in win over Padres

Following an opener, Cantillo gave up one hit, walked two and struck out four. Assuming he doesn’t appear again this season, Cantillo will finish 11-9 with a 3.62 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, and 171 strikeouts in 159 innings over 30 starts and 33 appearances. For his first season as a full-time starting pitcher, it wasn’t a bad debut, but he’ll have to cut his walk rate to be more than bordering on viable in mixed leagues.

This strategy worked well in Cantillo’s last outing, where he recorded five strikeouts over six scoreless innings against the Athletics on Friday. With Boston’s offense in a bit of a slide right now, Cantillo could be a solid option in fantasy leagues on Thursday.

Cantillo notched his 10th win of the season by keeping the Athletics off the scoreboard, scattering two hits and one walk, while needing just 81 pitches (54 strikes) to navigate six frames. He entered the contest after opener Daniel Espino surrendered three runs in the first inning and helped Cleveland keep pace with the White Sox for the AL Central division title. He’ll make his final regular-season outing against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Thursday.

He also hit two batters. The Guardians let Cantillo wear it last time out, as he gave up nine runs — four earned — in 5 1/3 innings against the Blue Jays. This was another miserable outing fueled by Cantillo’s control woes, and he’s now tied with Robbie Ray for the game’s highest walk total at 77 in 144 innings. He has a respectable 4.00 ERA anyway, and the Guardians are 18-12 in his starts. Pulling him from the rotation probably isn’t the right answer, but Cleveland might consider it after this. If so, they’d probably go back to Slade Cecconi, who allowed two runs in three innings of relief today.

Cantillo’s night spun out early, but not necessarily to any fault of his own. With two outs, one run home, and the bases loaded in the second inning, Guardians’ shortstop Angel Genao made a throwing error that brought two runs home. Two pitches later, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. launched a three-run homer and suddenly there were five unearned runs on Cantillo’s ledger. Past that, he pushed the usage of his fastball up and it was crushed for six hard-hit balls as he missed letter-high with it too often. Regardless, we know we can count on a very odd game whenever Cantillo toes the rubber. He’s scheduled for a two-start week coming up against the Orioles and Twins.

Cantillo only struck out one while issuing a career-high seven walks. That won’t help his ERA indicators, but he managed to get the job done in a favorable matchup. This outing started out ugly with three walks, a hit-by-pitch, and an error through the first two innings. The Guardians went on to rally in the top of the ninth for a comeback victory, their seventh straight. Cantillo’s next start lines up at home against Toronto.

Well that’s frustrating. Cantillo left with a 4-1 lead, but because he got 14 outs instead of 15, it’s a no-decision. The southpaw allowed four hits, but more importantly, walked four which caused him to throw 89 pitches for exiting the contest. The 26-year-old was able to whiff five and lower his ERA to 3.72, but this was more frustrating than impressive, respectfully. He’ll get another friendly matchup against the Angels next week.

The unearned runs came in the second after a Gabriel Arias error with two outs. Jared Young then walked, and Luis Torrens followed with a three-run homer. Cantillo fell to 8-7 with a 3.87 ERA. He’ll face the White Sox on Sunday.

This is an odd line to see with Cantillo seemingly facing no trouble yet not getting the chance to complete five innings and earn the win. He fell behind the eight-ball with a 26-pitch first inning where he only faced five batters and it continuously took him a long time to get outs. That’s the nature of the beast with Cantillo being so curveball heavy – it had a 48% usage rate here, a shade lower than its season-high – and threw more than half of his total pitches outside of the strike zone. Hopefully he can be more efficient in his next scheduled start against the Mets.

Cantillo worked very, very hard to record just 11 outs in this one. The Rays stacked their lineup with six right-handed batters against the left-handed Cantillo and they gave him fits. His curveball was his only reliable pitch as the command of both his fastball and changeup were completely nonexistent. That forced him to regularly fall behind in the count and fight through many long at-bats with runners on base in this short outing. He has not been able to build upon the solid momentum he built before the All-Star break with nine earned runs through 8 2/3 innings since returning and will try to right the ship against the Reds in Cincinnati next time out.