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Arroyo leads Reds to sweep of Giants

Aug 31, 2008 - 8:31 PM By Doug Tifft PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- Bronson Arroyo gave the Cincinnati Reds a quality start, and provided his own offense as the Reds beat the San Francisco Giants 9-2 on Sunday to complete a three game sweep.

Arroyo (13-10), who is 9-3 with a 3.30 ERA in his last 12 starts, limited his damage to two runs despite surrendering 10 hits in seven innings of work.

Arroyo traced his recent success to a technical change he made a few months back.

"I changed the grip on my sinker. I wanted to try something one day in the bullpen," Arroyo said. "As you pitch longer and longer in the league people always make adjustments to you.

"I have been throwing fastball on the outer half and breaking balls to right-handers my whole career. Now I can throw the sinker on the inner half, and I have gotten a lot more double play balls when I need them."

Arroyo helped his own cause in the fifth inning, breaking open a 3-2 game with a bases loaded double to left field that scored two runs and raised his batting average to .196.

"I have definitely felt better as of late at the plate, but it is always a crapshoot. I was looking for a breaking ball there and he happened to hang it inside," Arroyo said. "If he throws a good one on the outer half then I probably miss it."

San Francisco righthander Matt Cain agreed with the assessment.

"That was just a bad pitch in a bad location," Cain said of Arroyo's double. "If you make a god pitch in a good location then that does not happen."

Arroyo's double knocked Cain (8-11) out of the game. The righthander, who had a 2.13 ERA in his last nine starts, lasted only last five innings, allowing five runs on eight hits and five walks.

Cain traced his troubles to his propensity of giving free passes on the afternoon.

"I don't know that a lot of the walks necessarily ended up scoring, but they certainly drove up my pitch count (and made for a short outing)," Cain said.

The Reds offense came to the support of Arroyo due in large part to the contributions of Joey Votto, who went 4-5 with four RBI on the day and padded his rookie lead in three-hit games with 17.

"Joy Votto is as hot as anyone in baseball," Reds manager Dusty Baker said of his first baseman, who is hitting .400 (32-80) in his last 23 games.

Arroyo, whose lone blemishes were an RBI single by Aaron Rowand in the first and a solo home run by Emmanual Burriss, was followed by scoreless innings from Gary Majewski and Jeremy Affeldt.