Joey

Cantillo

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.

Cantillo gave up one hit, walked three and struck out seven. He improved to 9-7 on the season with the win. Cantillo allowed one run in the first inning, but dominated the Padres over his last five innings while giving up only two walks. He has a 3.80 ERA. Cantillo is lined up to face the Rockies at Coors Field next weekend.

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.

Cantillo gave up seven hits, walked two and struck out seven. He fell to 8-5 with the loss. Cantillo started the sixth inning having allowed two runs and was removed after allowing back-to-back doubles to start the inning. With both runners scoring, he added another two runs to his line without recording an out. Cantillo has recorded at least seven strikeouts in five of his last six starts. He has a 3.74 ERA and 4.11 xFIP. Cantillo is lined up to face the Rays on the road next weekend.

Parker Messick will get some extra rest after throwing a scoreless second inning in the All-Star Game. He’ll presumably face the Twins or Monday or Tuesday, with Slade Cecconi starting the other game.

Cantillo’s runs were unearned, but he was certainly due to see some hitters cross the plate Tuesday. He allowed six hits and three walks, so there was consistent traffic throughout the contest. Still, credit to Cantillo for battling through those runners — even if it was self-created — and if not for an error by Travis Bazzana, he just might have kept the Twins off the board Tuesday evening. He also was able to strike out a solid seven over those five frames, and he’ll look to apply the good from this start versus the Marlins in Miami on Sunday.

Cantillo struck out four in the 93-pitch outing. He came out for the sixth inning but departed after walking the first hitter. The left-hander posted his best monthly K-BB% of the year in June, but Wednesday’s outing was a step backward in that regard. His profile is built to excel at strikeouts and grounders rather than throwing strikes, and that disconnect prevents him from being a set-and-forget starting pitcher in most fantasy formats. Consider him a streamer next time out against the Twins.