Reds Ace Bronson Arroyo Benefits From the Power Surge By Votto and Heisey in a 6-4 Win Over the Dodgers

When the Reds returned home from the dismal 2-8 road trip through Cleveland, Philadelphia and Atlanta, Dusty Baker and Paul Janish returned to an apartment complex that had no power.

Little did they know that the Reds would go homerless for five games, the longest home run drought since 2006.  The Reds didn't hit any in a 4-1 loss to the Cubs at home and none in four games at San Francisco.  Pat Burrell of the Giants hit the only home run in that spacious ballpark during the entire Reds visit.

Also on the road trip from hell, which really isn't fair to hell, Bronson Arroyo had his shortest outings of the season and was beaten up.  The durable starter, that defies his slight build, really hates to miss a start but the thought was he needed to.  But Arroyo, who leads the National League in games started since coming to the Reds in 2006, rebounded to turn in his longest outing of the season.

The Reds fell behind in the first inning.  With two outs and none on, Andre Eithier singled.  Arroyo hit Matt Kemp with a pitch.  James Loney singled Eithier home.

Cincinnati tied it when Paul Janish, singled Chris Heisey home.

The Dodgers took the lead when Juan Uribe grounded into a double play.

Heisey broke the home run drought with his fifth home run of the season.

After young Dee Gordon, the son of former big league pitcher, Tom "Flash" Gordon, made some nice plays, booted a ground ball by Ryan Hanigan to open the seventh.  Janish hit a ground ball to third but Hanigan slid hard into Aaron Miles to force a bad throw.  Arroyo singled in the go-ahead run.  Matt Guerrier relieved Dodger start Hiroki Kuroda.  Drew Stubb popped out but Brandon Phillips walked.  Joey Votto belted his ninth home run to build a 6-2 lead.

Arroyo became the eighth straight Cincinnati starter to pitch into the seventh inning but his ninth quality start eluded him.  The sons of former Reds opponents produced a pair of runs.  Tony Gwynn Jr. singled and one out later Gordon tripled over Votto's head.   Arroyo, who pitched 7 1/3 innings on May 7 in Chicago, got Miles out on a sacrifice fly to better that outing in terms of length.  The fourth run, however, took him out of a quality start.

Bill Bray struck out Eithier to nip the rally in the bud.

Francisco Cordero struck out the side in the ninth to tie Doug Jones for 20th on the all-time saves list with his 303rd career save.



By Mark Schmetzer