Reds Continue Mastery of the Brewers in 7-3 Win Jay Bruce Homers Again

The Red hot Jay Bruce hit his league leading 16th home run with two men on to help the Reds open a 5-0 lead.

Travis Wood pitched through the sixth and allowed three runs as the Reds beat Milwaukee for the sixth time in seven games.

Bruce started the game with a .350 average against left handed pitchers and Chris Narveson to Bruce's delight throws left handed. 

The Reds right fielder hit a triple into the right field corner to start the second inning and scored on a line out to left by the resurgent Jonny Gomes.

With Joey Votto and Scott Rolen on base in the fourth inning, Bruce hit an 0-2 pitch 416 feet into the right field bleachers.  Gomes followed with a double and one out later scored on a single by Paul Janish.

It was the 12th home run for Bruce in May, two shy of the team record for home runs in a calendar month.  No Reds hitter has hit more than 12 home runs in a month since Greg Vaughn set the Reds record with 14 in September 1999.

"I'm making better decisions at the plate about what pitches to swing at," Bruce explained.

Dusty Baker just wants Bruce to carry on.

"You accept the deal and hope he doesn't wake up," Baker said.  "You want him to be natural.  He's not missing good pitches to hit or fouling them off."

Bruce started the game hitting a sizzling .350 against lefthanded pitching.  Votto led the NL with a .426 average versus southpaws at gametime.

Wood has a recent habit of shutting a team down, then having one bad inning.  The bad one came in the fifth.  Carlos Gomez and pinch hitter Josh Wilson hit back-to-back home runs.  Ryan Braun doubled home Corey Hart, who singled.

The Reds behind a daily fielding gem by Brandon Phillips, who took a hit away from Braun with a diving stop behind second base and a rested bullpen shut down the Brewers.

Jose Arredondo, Nick Masset and Francisco Cordero covered the last three innings for Wood.

"I'd have liked to pitch deeper into the game," Wood said.  "They were hitting good pitches.  Gomez went down and got the pitch he hit out.  The pitch to Wilson was inside where it was supposed to be but he put a good swing on it."

Masset in his 14 outings since May 3rd has a microscopic 0.68 ERA.  He has allowed just one earned run in 13 1/3 innings.

The Reds padded its lead with two runs in the sixth. 

Ryan Hanigan singled with two out.  Janish singled for his second hit of the game.  Then what had eluded the Reds on the horrid road trip, a timely two-out hit was delivered by pinch hitter Freddie Lewis.  Hanigan scored on the hit.  Janish scored when Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy threw the ball away trying to catch Lewis rounding firstbase.