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Jun 24, 2010 - 11:52 PM By BRETT HUSTON STATS Writer

Cleveland (26-44) at Cincinnati (40-33), 7:10 p.m. EDT

After being swept in the first half of their six-game interleague road trip, the Cincinnati Reds regained some confidence by engineering their own three-game sweep.

Not that they needed any more of a morale boost before hosting the Cleveland Indians.

The Reds have taken six consecutive series against their intrastate rivals, and the plummeting Indians seem ripe for more struggles as they come into Friday's opener in Cincinnati having lost nine of 10 games.

Dusty Baker's Reds totaled one run as they got swept last weekend in Seattle, twice losing 1-0.

The Reds (40-33) continued to get excellent starting pitching as they traveled down the West Coast to Oakland, but their offense came alive against the Athletics. Jay Bruce went 7 for 10 in the series, including 3 for 3 with two RBIs in Wednesday's finale as Cincinnati won 3-0 to complete the sweep.

"Big time, that's like a reverse sweep," Baker told the Reds' official website. "We got swept and then we sweep. It's not the way you plan it. But that's the way it worked out. We're actually going home the same we left - seven (games) over (.500). Hopefully, we can get back to double digits (above) pretty soon."

They could get there as soon as Sunday with a sweep of the Indians (26-45), which certainly looks possible given the way Cleveland is playing. The Indians' 12-3 loss Thursday afternoon at Philadelphia was their fifth straight, dropping them to 4-10 against NL opponents this season.

"The first two games were close," manager Manny Acta said. "Today, they just blew us away."

The Reds are likely the last team Cleveland would like to see as it tries to avoid its second six-game losing streak. It's lost 13 of 18 games over the past six series with Cincinnati, including two of three at Progressive Field last month.

Laynce Nix and Scott Rolen both homered twice in that series, while Bruce went 5 for 12.

Cincinnati, which has also won six of seven home games against the Indians, has to be happy to have Aaron Harang (5-7, 5.17 ERA) on the hill for the opener. The right-hander is 1-0 with a 0.99 ERA in four career home starts versus Cleveland.

The Indians' Russell Branyan, a notorious all-or-nothing hitter, has been just that against Harang. Branyan has two homers and six strikeouts in their eight career match-ups.

Harang was a hard-luck loser his last time out, allowing one run and three hits in six innings of Sunday's 1-0 loss at Seattle.

It will be surprising if Harang's counterpart keeps the Reds off the scoreboard Friday. Aaron Laffey (0-1, 5.61) will make his first start of the season after 20 relief appearances.

He's been in Triple-A since late May to stretch out his arm, and went 0-1 with a 3.98 ERA in four games there. Laffey is not coming in on a high note, after issuing seven walks over 5 2-3 innings Saturday.

"For the most part, he's thrown the ball over the plate," Acta told the Indians' official website. "It was probably just a bad game."

Bad games have defined Laffey against the Reds. He's 0-3 with an 11.05 ERA in two relief appearances and one start versus Cincinnati.