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Cincinnati Reds…
Arroyo's homer
lifts Reds in Arizona
Righty awarded tiebreaking long ball after video review
PHOENIX- As the Reds moved their weary selves into Arizona for a
three-game series with the promise of the much-needed off-day on the
other side, they will accept contributions from all corners of the
clubhouse.
In a 3-2 Reds win over the D-backs, most of the storylines happened to
come from Bronson Arroyo's corner. Not only did Arroyo pitch well for
six innings, it was his home run in the top of the sixth inning that
held up as the game winner.
"It's another unlikely hero," Reds manager Dusty Baker said of Arroyo,
the hitter. "That was a game we really needed, especially after the
Cardinals won."
Cincinnati, in the final series in a stretch of 34 games over 34 days,
maintained its six-game lead over second-place St. Louis in the
National League Central. It was the Cardinals that took two of three
from the Reds in a series that wrapped on Sunday at Great American Ball
Park.
No time to lick wounds, time to keep pushing forward. Arroyo (11-7)
made it easier to do that on the mound and with the bat.
In the sixth inning with two outs and the game tied, 2-2, Arroyo drove
a 3-2 Tyler Skaggs pitch to left field that appeared to bounce off the
top of the wall. Third base umpire and crew chief Derryl Cousins
immediately ruled the ball did not clear the fence and Arroyo reached
second base with a stand-up double.
Before play continued, Baker asked for the umpires to confer over the
call. Cousins and his crew left the field to review it via video
replay, and then overturned the original call to award Arroyo with a
home run. The video showed the ball actually did clear the fence, and
ricocheted off a railing before going back into play.
"We just knew that ball ricocheted too hard to just hit off the wall
there," Baker said. "Thank God for instant replay. That was the game
winner."
It also rewarded a hard-fought at-bat for Arroyo, who fouled off a pair
of 3-2 pitches before hitting the eighth pitch from Skaggs out.
"He was throwing me a lot of four-seamers that weren't moving a whole
lot," said Arroyo, who has six career homers after getting his first
since June 17, 2010. "A lot of them were just up and away and I was
popping them up like I did the first at-bat. I thought if he threw it
middle-in, I'd have a chance to at least hit it hard. He did and
luckily I got just enough of it to win the ballgame."
The homer upheld a strong start on the mound. Arroyo gave up two runs
and five hits with one walk and three strikeouts to improve to 4-0 with
a 2.86 ERA over his last four starts and 7-1 with a 3.44 ERA over his
last eight starts.
"When Bronson gets on one of these rolls, he's capable of six, seven in
a row," Baker said. "We've seen it many, many times. We hope this is
it."
"Things are kind of working out a little bit," Arroyo said. "I've been
feeling good, but I've been feeling good all year. Early on, I just
didn't get some breaks or some runs in key situations. Lately, I'm
getting runs late in the game when you need them to give you a chance
to hold the lead and give it to the bullpen. Sometimes things just have
to fall into place and they've been falling into place the last six
weeks."
Arroyo retired nine of his first 10 batters, but would find Justin
Upton to be the wrinkle in his evening. With one out in the second
inning, Upton drove a 1-1 pitch to the seats in left field for
Arizona's 1-0 lead.
In the second inning, Brandon Phillips lashed a RBI double to the gap
in right-center field for the Reds' first run. A big break came in the
fourth inning after Wilson Valdez's two-out grounder to the mound.
First baseman Paul Goldschmidt dropped Skaggs' routine throw for an
error that scored Scott Rolen to make it a 2-1 game.
During a lengthy fourth inning, Upton returned with a one-out RBI
single to left field that made it 2-2 before Arroyo sidestepped more
trouble by getting Miguel Montero to ground into a double play.
"We got five runs off him last time, he mixed it up on us a little bit
this time," D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said. "He threw a lot strikes,
a few more fastballs that made us think and kept us off balance. We
just hit some balls that were out in front, that's what he does. Just
too effective for us tonight and we didn't make the most of our
opportunities as well."
Arroyo admitted to being gassed after 99 pitches and gave way to the
bullpen, which retired the final nine in a row. After Sean Marshall and
Jonathan Broxton each handled an inning, Aroldis Chapman recorded his
32nd save of the season, and his 24th consecutive save, which set a new
club record. It was also Baker's 400th victory as Reds manager.
Read this and other articles at Cincinnati Reds
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