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Arroyo flashes all-around game as Reds down Brewers

Aug 5, 2008 - 3:05 AM By Doug Tifft PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- The Cincinnati Reds may have entered Monday tied for last place in the National League Central, but it may be the Milwaukee Brewers who are showing their frustration the most.

Bronson Arroyo tossed six strong innings and helped his own cause with a two-run double, sending the Reds to a 6-3 victory over the Brewers.

Arroyo (10-8) yielded one run and four hits with two walks and six strikeouts to post his sixth win over his last seven starts, a stretch in which he has a 3.67 ERA for the Reds (52-61), who are tied with Pittsburgh (51-60) in the NL Central Division cellar.

"I have been feeling good for about a month-and-a-half to two months," Arroyo said. "(When) I feel confident and strong with my fastball and I am able to hit both sides of the plate, I feel like I always have a chance to win."

The righthander even helped key Cincinnati's offense, breaking open a scoreless game in the fifth as he came to the plate following a single by Jolbert Cabrera - Cincinnati's first hit of the night - and two walks by Milwaukee starter Manny Parra (9-5) with a liner to the wall in left.

"I have been swinging the bat well, but I always say that (getting hits as a pitcher) is luck because you don't get enough looks to make it a real job," Arroyo said of his double.

Two batters later, rookie Joey Votto grounded a two-run single past first baseman Prince Fielder to increase the Reds lead to 4-0.

Parra's only other mistake of the night was an outside fastball to rookie Jay Bruce in the sixth, which he sent 381 feet to left field for a two-run home run.

The lefthander allowed six runs and four hits over six innings, walking four and striking out six.

However, the hardest hit of the night may have come after he exited the game.

Parra and Fielder appeared to be arguing nondescriptly in the dugout - presumably over Votto's grounder that the pitcher thought his first baseman should have been able to field - when Fielder shoved Parra in the chest and hit him in the face.

The altercation may personify the frustration of the Brewers' team at the moment, as they have lost eight of 11 games.

"It's not a big deal," Brewers manager Ned Yost said of the fight. "For eight months of the year, we are a family, at times things flair up. But it is between the family and in the family.

"It is a little bit rude when your next-door neighbor is fighting for you to go knock on the door and ask what happened. We handle it between us and it is nobody's business what happened."

Yost, who got in a fight last year on August 2 with then-Brewers catcher Johnny Estrada in the dugout, denied that there would be any sort of disciplinary action as a result of the fight.

"We handled it our own way; it wasn't a major deal," Yost said. "Believe what you want. It is an in-house thing. It's in between our family. There is a privacy issue here somewhere and just because it is on TV does not make it anybody's right to know what happened."

One of the leading causes of the Brewers' tension may be their inability to hit with runners in scoring position, getting only 10 hits over their last 100 at-bats with a runner on second or third.

"I just know that that type of stuff goes in cycles," Yost said. "The thing that you don't do is continue to beat it. You focus on coming in the next day and see if that is not the start when it turns around."

While Parra and Fielder were having words in the dugout, Mike Cameron launched a solo home run to left off of reliever Gary Majewski - which along with a RBI single from Corey Hart in the sixth and a solo homer by Ryan Braun in the eighth - comprised the Brewers' scoring.

After the two relievers before him each allowed solo shots, Francisco Cordero worked a scoreless ninth for his 22nd save of the season.