The Reds Bust Loose Against Former Miami Redhawk, Take Back First

The silent Reds bats got the wake up call early this morning.

The Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers, Hiroki Kuroda and Clayton Kershaw, made the league's leading offense look the puny math class whiz with tape on his glasses.  The Reds managed just two runs in the first two games of the series.

Heck, Bronson Arroyo drove in more than that in his first at bat off former Miami Redhawk, John Ely.

"Hitting was more fun.  I didn't have my good stuff," Arroyo said.  "It was the worst stuff I've had in a long time."

Corky Miller walked with two outs and Jay Bruce, who doubled on secondbase.  Presumably, the idea was to work on Arroyo.  But alas, Arroyo emptied the bases with a line drive home run to left that caused Ely to double over in pain as soon as the bat met the ball.

Dusty Baker felt the joy.  The last time he saw Arroyo hit a ball out, Baker managed the Cubs. The long haired hurler hit a home run in his first two Reds starts both off the Chicago's Glendon Rusch.

"I turned to (bench coach) Chris (Speier) and told him it was about time for Bronson to go deep," Baker said.  "He said call those more often.  I told them I don't feel them all the time."
It was sweet revenge for Arroyo, who had walked A.J. Ellis and Jamey Carrol after two outs in the top of the second inning, only to have Ely line a run scoring single toe leftcenter.

The awakened Reds hitters picked up the cue.

Joey Votto cracked a two-run home run in the third.  Brandon Phillips lifted a solo shot in the fifth.  A walk to Scott Rolen and a single by Jonny Gomes, caused Ely to matriculate to the showers.  Bruce delivered the seventh run with a single to right off reliever, Justin Miller.

Arroyo had uncharacteristic control problems walking six in the first seven innings but a trio of uncommon but well executed firstbaseman-to-shortstop-to-pitcher (3-6-1) double plays kept the Dodgers from scoring for a change, after it scored 18 runs in the first two games.

"I didn't have command of anything," Arroyo said.  "The only thing I had was my sinker and I didn't have much velocity on it.  I was lucky to get ground balls right at Joey."

It look like pitcher's fielding practice (PFP) on the back fields of Arizona.

"It was PFP at its finest," Baker said.  "Bronson works as hard on his fielding as anyone.  Votto works hard on it everyday.  He'll work on it even harder since he saw the fruits of his labor.  I don't think I've ever seen three of those in a game."

The career high six walks was the only complaint that Arroyo could have triggered as he excelled in three phases of the game.  He worked seven complete, allowing just five mostly harmless singles and just the one run.
The 7-1 win put the Reds a half game ahead ot the St. Louis Cardinals, that had the day off.