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Cubs, Reds clash gets a Florida feel

May 7, 2011 - 2:34 PM (Sports Network) - Two Florida-born pitchers -- one a veteran and one a youngster -- meet on the mound today when the Cincinnati Reds head to Wrigley Field for the middle game of a three-game weekend series with the host Chicago Cubs.

The suddenly streaking Reds got off to a strong start in Friday's afternoon opener when Jay Bruce hit a three-run homer en route to a 5-4 win. Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips hit RBI singles for Cincinnati, which took its third consecutive game.

The Reds started the season at 5-0, then lost 15 of 24 to fall below .500 before winning the final two games of a series with Houston and topping the Cubs.

Starter Edinson Volquez (3-1) pitched in and out of trouble over five-plus innings. He gave up six hits and four runs (three earned), walked four, and threw 98 pitches, 57 for strikes.

Volquez has failed to get through the sixth inning in three consecutive starts, but picked up the win after the Reds bullpen threw four scoreless innings and the offense came through with key hits against Cubs starter Matt Garza (1-4).

Garza allowed all five Reds runs in six innings, giving up six hits, walking two and striking out seven. Aramis Ramirez hit an RBI single for the Cubs, who had won two in a row.

Newcomer right-hander Casey Coleman, a 23-year-old native of Fort Myers, Fla. makes the 13th start of his brief career and fifth of 2011.

A 15th-round pick out of Florida Gulf Coast University in 2008, Coleman was 4-2 with a 4.11 earned run average in 12 appearances -- eight starts -- with Chicago at the end of last season in his big-league debut.

He's started four times so far this year, getting a no-decision and a win in the first two outings before consecutive losses to Los Angeles and Arizona.

In the two most recent games, he's worked just 7 2/3 combined innings while giving up 10 hits and 10 runs, with nine walks, as his ERA has swelled from 4.22 to 7.36.

He allowed 10 hits and six runs in nine innings against the Reds in two appearances last season, including one start.

Coleman's opposed by 34-year-old Key West native Bronson Arroyo, who'll face the Cubs for the 23rd time in a career that began in June 2000, when Coleman was 12.

The right-hander is 9-7 with a 2.80 ERA in 131 2/3 innings against the Cubs, allowing a lifetime opposition batting average of .225.

He opened the 2011 season with consecutive wins over Milwaukee and Arizona but has won just one time in four starts since, dropping a 9-5 verdict to Florida in his last outing on May 1.

He was 2-0 in a pair of April road starts while allowing 14 hits and one earned run in 12 1/3 innings.

Arroyo is 10 games over .500 (106-96) in his big-league career.

Cincinnati won 12 of 16 games with Chicago in 2010, including a 6-1 ledger at Wrigley.