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Arroyo tries to get off schneid versus Dodgers

Jun 3, 2011 - 2:46 PM (Sports Network) - Right-hander Bronson Arroyo again aims to snap a month-long drought tonight when his Cincinnati Reds entertain the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first test of a three-game weekend series at Great American Ball Park.

The 34-year-old native of Key West, Fla. was 3-2 on the season after throwing 6 1/3 innings of two-run ball in a 9-5 win at Milwaukee on April 25, but has since gone 0-3 in six starts.

The Reds, who've slumped to just four wins in their last 15 games overall and fallen from first to third in the National League's Central Division, are 1-5 in those six Arroyo starts.

The former Pittsburgh Pirates draft choice and Boston Red Sox championship team member has been hit especially hard in his last four outings, allowing 6, 7, 10 and 9 hits while his earned run average has swelled from 3.68 to 5.74.

Arroyo has met the Dodgers 12 times in his 306 big-league appearances and is 3-4 with a 4.04 ERA in 69 innings.

Los Angeles, meanwhile, sends 36-year-old Japanese export Hiroki Kuroda to the mound with a chance to stay perfect in his career against the Reds.

Now a veteran of 94 major-league appearances, Kuroda has won all three of his starts against Cincinnati while allowing 15 hits and five earned runs in 18 2/3 innings - permitting an opposition batting average of just .217.

Kuroda improved to 5-3 for the 2011 season with 7 2/3 innings of shutout ball against Milwaukee on May 17, but has since dropped two straight starts against the Chicago White Sox and Florida Marlins.

In those two outings, in which the Dodgers have been outscored, 14-4, Kuroda has allowed 19 hits and 11 runs in 11 innings, raising his 2011 ERA from 2.80 to 3.50.

He is 3-2 in five road starts this season.

On Wednesday in Cincinnati, Joey Votto blasted a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth and Francisco Cordero earned his 300th career save, as the Reds downed Milwaukee, 4-3, in the rubber match of a three-game set.

With Brandon Phillips aboard and the Reds trailing, 3-2, Votto unloaded on a Kameron Loe sinker, sending the ball deep over the center field wall.

Cordero threw a perfect ninth to become the 22nd pitcher in major league history with 300 saves. Nick Masset (1-3) earned the win after recording the final out in the top of the eighth - a strikeout of Corey Hart with two men on base.

In Los Angeles, Ubaldo Jimenez captured his elusive first win of 2011 during the first day of the third full month of baseball with a shutout, leading the Colorado Rockies to a 3-0 win over the Dodgers.

Jimenez (1-5), who had 10 wins by this time last season, allowed just four hits and struck out seven in his 10th start of the season.

Jon Garland (1-5) allowed three runs on five hits in six innings to get the loss, which snapped the Dodgers' season high-tying three-game win streak.

Cincinnati won five of its nine meetings with the Dodgers last season.