CHICAGO -- Triple-A Columbus manager Andy Tracy approached Joey Cantillo on Wednesday with some news. Cantillo was not going to start for the Clippers in Toledo on Thursday as planned. The left-hander was needed in the big leagues.
The Guardians recalled Cantillo for a last-minute spot start against the Cubs in the series finale at Wrigley Field. The southpaw delivered a solid performance, limiting Chicago to two hits and three walks over 3 1/3 scoreless innings while striking out five.
The Guardians (40-45) went on to fall, 1-0, in 10 innings -- marking their season-high seventh straight loss. Cleveland got swept in the three-game set while scoring six runs.
“Joey was great,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “Joey was pounding the strike zone. [He had] a couple of walks, but he worked around them. It was really good to see him back out there. He gave us what he had.”
The Guardians optioned Cantillo to Triple-A Columbus on May 27 so he could stretch out as a starting pitcher, after he spent the first two months of the season in Cleveland’s bullpen. He was back out there in the Majors under unfortunate circumstances.
The Guardians summoned Cantillo to start in place of right-hander Luis Ortiz, whom MLB placed on non-disciplinary paid leave Thursday morning amid a league investigation. Ortiz was the scheduled starter for the finale, but he will be on leave through the All-Star break.
Cantillo’s first start back was an encouraging performance for a rotation that is going to need help indefinitely under the circumstances. He’s still building up his pitch count. He did not know whether he would be starting or coming out of the bullpen until a Wednesday night conversation with pitching coach Carl Willis.
“Obviously, there were a lot of things up in the air, and he just let me know I was starting,” Cantillo said. “From that point on, I was like, ‘All right, go out there and try to fill up the zone, put this team in a good spot to win.’ That was a battle today, for sure, and obviously we didn't come out on top. But I think it was a hard-fought game, obviously, and we were a couple pitches away from winning.”
Cantillo allowed a two-out single to Seiya Suzuki in the first and back-to-back two-out walks to Ian Happ and Kyle Tucker in the third. In the fourth, he surrendered a single to Dansby Swanson and a walk to Nico Hoerner with one out, which marked the end of his outing. Cantillo’s pitch count was at 68, his highest in any outing between the Majors and Minors this season.
Cantillo threw 62 pitches in his first start back with Columbus on June 1, but then went 14 days between outings after experiencing left elbow discomfort in a bullpen session. He returned to game action on June 15 and worked up to 56 pitches in his most recent start last Friday.
“Today we did a lot of things well,” Cantillo said. “We competed, and there's still a lot of things from an execution standpoint that we can continue to work on. That's kind of where we're at here. As the pitch count goes up, let's continue to fill up the zone. A couple of those walks obviously hurt me. Just ran that pitch count up. But we battled today and just didn't come out on top.”
A 13-pitch battle with All-Star Game starting center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong in the fourth did not help Cantillo’s pitch count, but the southpaw came out on top. The decibel level at Wrigley kicked up a few notches in that spot, and Cantillo cupped his ear with his glove to hear the pitch call on the PitchCom device in his hat.
Cantillo reared back in a 3-2 count and struck Crow-Armstrong out swinging with a 91.9 mph four-seam fastball.
The left-hander threw 26 four-seamers, 16 curveballs, 16 changeups and 16 sliders. When the Guardians optioned him to Columbus to stretch out, they also wanted to see him show more consistency with his heater’s strike-throwing and location.
Cantillo landed his fastball for a strike 14 times and Suzuki’s single was the only hit he yielded with it.
“I thought the fastball was good, and that's as good of a slider as we've seen from him versus their lefties,” Vogt said. "Encouraging [performance] from Joey. He's gonna help us out a lot.”