Renteria says Castillo miscue out of character

Cubs catcher Welington Castillo heard boos from the Wrigley Field crowd Wednesday night, when he failed to run out a groundball back to the pitcher in the sixth inning.

The pitch jammed Castillo and seemed to startle him, but it also looked like he gave up once it went to the pitcher. Castillo has not been a player known for those kinds of plays.

“I think that's a one-time thing for Welly,” said manager Rick Renteria before Thursday night's game against the Padres. “Not only were, I'm sure, the fans upset about it, but we all were very surprised by it. It's not something that Welly does. Welly comes out of the box for the most part. He hustles. He knows. I think that's a very rare thing you saw yesterday.”

Grimm's reaping:

Reliever Justin Grimm had a rough go of it in Wednesday's 8-3 loss to the Padres. He worked the eighth inning and gave up 2 hits and 3 runs while walking three.

It's been a busy year for Grimm, who entered Thursday leading the Cubs in appearances with 46, 1 more than Brian Schlitter.

“His velocities are still good,” said Rick Renteria. “I think he's got a really good breaking ball. We're still trying to get what he does in the pen into the game. In talking to him yesterday a little bit, he knows that he's got to be able to command his pitches. We're just trying to figure out what it is, if it's just emotion once he gets into the ballgame.”

Talking about Maddux:

Rick Renteria was a coach for the Padres in 2008 when Greg Maddux pitched for the Padres part of that season. Maddux will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this weekend.

“He was obviously able to find something that kept him on the field a long time, a very gifted athlete,” Renteria said.

Renteria also talked of Maddux' baseball intellect.

“He was very intuitive,” Renteria said. “He could literally sit in the dugout and say ‘This guy's going to hit this ball right between his legs right now.' And the next pitch, sure enough, we'd make the pitch because we'd have gone over the pitching plan. And, ‘Watch this, it's going to hit him right between his legs' and boom, guy would hit the ball between his legs.

“He had a knack of recognizing and knowing where a ball was going to be projected. It was evident when you saw him fielding when he pitched he was many times already moving to the area where the ball was going to be batted to and had kind of a step up on fielding the ball if he was able to get to it.”