• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Garza goes for Cubs in Cincy

May 17, 2011 - 2:42 PM (Sports Network) - Offseason trade acquisition Matt Garza can make it three wins in four starts tonight when the Chicago Cubs visit Great American Ball Park to wrap up a two-game set with the host Cincinnati Reds.

A 15-game winner last season with the Tampa Bay Rays, the 27-year-old came to Chicago in an eight-player deal that sent five players to St. Petersburg and brought Garza, a minor-leaguer and utility man Fernando Perez to the NL.

Garza struggled in his initial five starts with his new team, logging an 0-3 record and a 4.11 earned run average that included three outings where he allowed at least five runs.

He broke through for a 5-3 win at Arizona on April 30 and has split a pair of starts in May, including an 11-4 defeat of St. Louis in which he gave up just three hits and run with seven strikeouts in five innings.

The Californian's first and only career meeting with the Reds was May 6 at Wrigley Field, ending in a 5-4 loss after he was touched for six hits and five runs - while striking out seven - in six innings.

The Cubs are 3-5 in games he's pitched.

The Reds drew first blood in this series Monday night, scoring all of their runs in the sixth inning to earn a 7-4 decision.

Scott Rolen had the game-tying run-scoring double while Jay Bruce went 2-for-4 with an RBI for Cincinnati, which kept the momentum going after sweeping St. Louis in a three-game series over the weekend.

The Reds have now won four straight and 10 of 12 overall.

Homer Bailey (3-0), making only his third start of the season, grinded through six innings, allowing six hits and four runs -- three earned. The right-hander walked three and fanned four. Francisco Cordero locked the game down with a perfect ninth to earn his eighth save of the season.

Carlos Pena clubbed a two-run homer for the Cubs, who have dropped five of seven. Darwin Barney went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

Carlos Zambrano (4-2) was touched for six runs on six hits, with three walks and three strikeouts, in 5 1/3 innings.

Heading to the hill for the Reds tonight will be righty Edinson Volquez, who has already pitched against Garza this season and will be facing the Cubs for the fifth time in his career.

Volquez allowed six hits and three earned runs with three strikeouts in getting the May 6 win and raised his lifetime mark against the Cubs to 3-0. In 23 2/3 innings against them, the Dominican has surrendered just 20 hits and six runs.

A 17-game winner in 2008, Volquez has won three of four decisions in 2011 in spite of allowing 27 earned runs in his initial 42 1/3 overall innings.

He pitched four innings and got a no-decision in his most recent outing, allowing three hits and three runs in the Reds' 4-3 loss at Houston on May 11.

Cincinnati is 5-3 in games he's started.

The Reds took two of three from the Cubs earlier in the year after taking 12 of the 16 meetings in 2010.