PHOENIX -- Rubby De La Rosa and Welington Castillo have carried their little league bond from the Dominican Republic to the biggest stage, and it has played well.
In the two starts Castillo has caught De La Rosa since the former was acquired from Seattle, De La Rosa has given up just two runs in 15 innings.
Exhibit A was the D-backs' 4-0 victory at San Francisco last Sunday, when De La Rosa took a shutout into the ninth inning.
Exhibit B was Friday, when De La Rosa gave up two runs, one earned, in a 4-2 victory over San Diego.
"They've become a nice combination," D-backs manager Chip Hale said.
The have been for awhile. Castillo, obtained June 3, is 28, almost two years older than De La Rosa. But they played on the same youth baseball teams. Castillo did not catch De La Rosa back then -- Castillo was a middle-of-the-field player, like most major leaguers were in their youth. But he saw De La Rosa's potential.
"I was lucky to play with him in little leagues, so we have a really good background," said Castillo, who also supported De La Rosa with an RBI double in a three-run third inning that gave the D-backs a 4-0 lead.
"I never thought I was going to catch him in the big leagues. I feel happy having him here."
De La Rosa gave up five hits, struck out six and walked three with an arsenal that included a four-seam fastball that touched 99 mph. He relied more on his sinking two-seam fastball most of the night, a nod to Castillo's game-calling. In the two games the two have worked together, De La Rosa has shook off his catcher four times, and two of those were done to throw off opposing hitters, De La Rosa said.
"I kept everything down in the zone," De La Rosa said. "Me and Castillo stayed on the same page. I just stayed focused and tried to follow him. It's good to have a guy like him. He is really good for me. He tries to make me more comfortable with all my pitches in any situation and in any count. I'm more confident that before. I try to follow him. I try to make my pitches."
Hale credited Castillo with helping De La Rosa (6-3) get out of the only real trouble he faced, when opposing James Shields hit a two-out single to start a San Diego rally in the fifth. Yangervis Solarte followed with singled and Yonder Alonso walked to load the bases.
De La Rosa walked Justin Upton on a 3-2 fastball to force in a run and cut the score to 4-1, but after a mound visit from Castillo he struck out Matt Kemp on a 1-2 slider to leave the bases loaded.
"He did another great job," Hale said of De La Rosa. "Had great stuff tonight. The only hiccup was he allowed the pitcher to get a hit on an off-speed pitch instead of throwing something nasty there. He left it right there for him to and kind of lost his focus there for a few hitters. He got out of it, that's a big step forward. I think Welington really helped him there to just allow the one run. Getting Kemp was big for him."
De La Rosa used more sliders than changeups, his usual second pitch, and he also struck out Kemp in the first inning with a slider. But it all worked off his well-located fastball.
"His fastball was really good, his fastball command," Castillo said. "He was throwing his two-seam down in the zone."
De La Rosa has won four of his last five decisions, part of the growing pains the D-backs were hoping to work through as they gave De La Rosa his chance to pitch every fifth day, something he had not had before. He gave up seven and nine runs in the two starts before his eight shutout innings in San Francisco.
"It's a young guy finding his way," Hale said. "It's the first time somebody is allowing him to go out there. We've committed to him, and he's had some rough spots. That's baseball."
While it looked for all the world like Paul Goldschmidt dodged San Diego catcher Derek Norris' tag on a play at the plate in the third inning, the umpires got it right, Hale said. "On our big (Chase Field) screen, you couldn't see that he touched the front foot," Hale said. "There was an angle that New York had that showed he juts nicked the front foot before he touched the plate. It was a good call."
9 -- pitches Nick Ahmed saw before hitting an RBI single to cap a three-run third with an RBI single to center.
* Yasmany Tomas may miss a day or two but probably no more, Hale said, after he suffered a contusion when he was struck in the left elbow by a James Shields pitch in the first inning. X-rays were negative. Tomas stayed in the game for one more at-bat before he left in the fourth inning, when Danny Dorn took over in right field.
"There's big old lump on there," Hale said. "When swung on the strikeout (in the third inning), he said that was enough. Probably going to have to give him a day tomorrow to see if we can get some range of motion back." Tomas made a diving catch in the top of the third inning, landing on his left side, but that did not make it worse, Hale said.
* Aaron Hill is 11-for-38 (.289) against Shields after his two-out RBI double sparked the three-run third.
* Catcher Oscar Hernandez, a Rule 5 pick last winter, will join the D-backs team when he returns from the disabled list, Hale said. If the D-backs do not keep him on the major league team, they have to offer him back to Tampa Bay. "We like Oscar," Hale said. Hernandez, who has been out since suffering a hamate bone injury in spring training, has played four games at Low-A Kane County on a rehab assignment and could be ready to return in two weeks. He would be their sixth catcher -- Tuffy Gosewisch, Gerald Laird and Jordan Pacheco were on the opening day roster, and Welington Castillo and Jarrod Saltalamacchia were been added because of injury.
* Touki Toussaint, Arizona's first-round draft pick in 2014, pitched six scoreless innings in Kane County's 4-1 victory over Quad Cities on Friday. Toussaint gave up one hit, a single, and walked one while striking out five. Toussaint, whose fastball reportedly touched 95 mph, is 2-2 with 3.69 in seven starts for the Cougars.
The D-backs signed right-hander Jhoulys Chacin and had him on a plane to Triple-A Reno, a day after Chacin opted out of a minor league deal with Cleveland. Chacin, who lives in Scottsdale, battled shoulder injuries the past two seasons and was released by Colorado this spring. But he has had success. He posted double-digit victories in 2011 and 2013 and was especially hard on the D-backs in his career, going 5-3 with a 3.04 ERA in 14 career appearances.
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