Morton Tops Arroyo In 6-1 Loss To Pittsburgh

Charile Morton and Bronson Arroyo entered the game with identical earned run averages, 2.08.

But Morton's teammates got to his Cincinnati counterpart for five runs in three innings.  After a scoreless first inning, the Pirates started swinging the bats.  Garrett Jones homered to right to lead off the second inning. Chris Snyder singled in a run in the third.  Lyle Overbay singled home Jose Tabata, who had his first four-hit game. Pittsburgh native, Neil Walker hit a two-run home run to right to cap the scoring in the fourth.

That was the end for Arroyo.  His original team handed him his first loss of the season, after a 2-0 start.

"Bronson didn't have his good command," Dusty Baker said.  "You could tell by the number of 0-2 hits and two-out hits."

"I got to 0-2 to a lot of guys," Arroyo said.  "But I didn't have a pitch to put them away. It was the best I've felt all year. You have to tip your hat to Charlie.  A guy who was beaten around last year, he pitched a great game."

Morton started three games against the Reds last year, allowing 11 runs in 14.1 innings.  He escaped a loss in one of those but took losses in the other two.

"He was a power pitcher last year but he had a lot of sink on his pitches tonight," Baker said.  "We hit a lot of balls into the ground."

Morton gave up just five hits, two ground ball singles to Drew Stubbs and a couple flares until Jay Bruce spoiled his shutout with a home run.  It came with two outs in the ninth.

It was the first home run for Bruce and Baker took that as one of the positives.

"You hate to lose but you try to take something positive out of each game," Baker said.

"If you can give a game ball in a loss, you'd give one to Matt Maloney," Baker said..  Maloney held the Pirates over five innings.  His last time out he was racked by Arizona for seven runs (five earned) in 1 2/3 innings.  He saved Bakers already beat up bullpen with 14 games in 14 days.

"You don't want to start out a stretch like that with your bullpen overworked.  Maloney saved us big time," Baker said.

Notes:

Joey Votto was hitless for the second time this season but was on base twice with walks.  He had reached base at least once in all 14 games.

Brandon Phillips was out of the game with a strained groin.  He managed to put out 36 tweets in two hours during his inactivity.

Edinson Volquez was scratched from his start tomorrow with a stiff neck.  Mike Leake will pitch Saturday.  Volquez will go back to work on Sunday.