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Rolen, Zaun help Blue Jays rout Reds

Jun 25, 2008 - 3:55 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- The Toronto Blue Jays continued to make life miserable for Bronson Arroyo.

Scott Rolen and Gregg Zaun both homered in a six-run first as the Blue Jays pounded the Cincinnati Reds, 14-1, in the opener of an interleague series on Tuesday.

Alex Rios hit a solo homer and Rolen drove in four runs overall for Toronto, which has scored 22 runs in its last two wins after suffering through a seven-game losing streak.

"Tonight was a great night for the offense," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "We came out swinging the bats and scored a lot of runs. We'd like to get some more of those. I'd like to have 10 of these games in a row if I could, but I know that impossible."

Blue Jays starter A.J. Burnett (7-7) was excellent, giving up just a run, four hits and three walks while striking out seven in eight innings.

"Burnett pitched like a champion," Gaston said. "He hurled just a great game."

"The Blue Jays gave A.J. plenty of breathing room from the beginning, letting him relax and throw whatever he wanted to throw," Reds manager Dusty Baker said.

It's the first time the righthander has gone past five innings pitched in his last four starts.

"It was fun to go past five innings for a change," Burnett said. "I was a little erratic early, but found the hook (curveball) toward the later innings. Even though we had a big cushion, I was trying to stay within myself and pitch my game."

The Blue Jays used Arroyo (4-7) for batting practice, roughing him up for a career-high 10 runs and a career high-tying 11 hits in one-plus innings. The righthander, who walked one and fanned a batter in the shortest start of his career, is now 0-4 with a 9.80 ERA in his last five outings vs. Toronto.

"I probably could have told the Blue Jays what was coming and fared better," Arroyo said.

The nine-year veteran also has had a terrible June, going 0-3 with a 10.01 ERA in five starts this month. Arroyo, who saw his overall ERA balloon from 5.55 to 6.52, has been bombed for nine homers in his June outings.

With the Blue Jays leading, 1-0, with two out in the bottom of the first, Rolen belted a three-run shot to give the home team a four-run lead before Zaun went deep off Arroyo two batters later to make it 6-0.

"It seemed no matter what Bronson threw, he couldn't get them out," Baker said. "There were just a lot of balls in the center of the plate - and it's hard to get guys out in the center of the plate."

After Cincinnati scored a run in the top of the second, Toronto still wasn't done with Arroyo.

In the bottom half of the second, Rios led off with his fourth homer and Rolen and Matt Stairs added RBI doubles to give Toronto an eight-run advantage.

"After the first inning, I tried to wipe the slate clean, come back out and start with a fresh inning," Arroyo said. "I had a 1-2 count on Rios, threw the ball right where I wanted to, and he hit that out of the park. It was one of them days."

After Arroyo was mercifully taken out by Baker, Adam Lind drilled a run-scoring single and Joe Inglett added an RBI groundout off reliever Gary Majewski to up the lead to 11-1.

Vernon Wells, Marco Scutaro (4-for-6) and Zaun added RBI singles for Toronto, which had a season-high 22 hits while scoring its most runs of 2008.