After getting swept for the first time this season, the Pirates look to snap their season-high three-game losing streak as they open a three-game series against the Reds on Friday night at PNC Park.
The Pirates should feel good about their chances with Zach Duke (3-1, 2.43 ERA) taking the mound Friday. The left-hander held San Diego to one run and six hits in 8 1-3 innings of a 10-1 victory Saturday. He’s pitched at least six innings in each of his first four starts, and he’s already just two wins shy of his total from 2008, when he was 5-14 with a 4.82 ERA in 31 outings.
Duke is 2-2 with a 4.05 ERA in five career starts against the Reds, but the Pirates have won the last three.
Bronson Arroyo (3-1, 6.48) will start for the Reds hoping to bounce back from one of the worst outings of his career. The right-hander was tagged for nine runs in 5 2-3 innings of a 10-2 home loss to Atlanta on Saturday.
Arroyo, who broke into the majors with the Pirates and pitched for them from 2000-02, is 2-3 with a 4.07 lifetime ERA against Pittsburgh.
Second baseman Brandon Phillips hadn’t missed an inning this season before Wednesday, when he was held out of the starting lineup. He pinch-hit in the ninth inning of a 3-0 win over the Astros.
Phillips is batting .188, but he refuses to call it a slump.
“I will hit. I’m that confident,” he said. “It’s not a slump because I’m not striking out and I’m hitting the ball hard. A slump is when you go 0-for-20 with 12 strikeouts and don’t hit the ball hard.”
Phillips returns to the lineup Friday night when his team begins a five-game road trip at Pittsburgh and Florida.
Manager Dusty Baker is reluctant to remove his Gold Glove second baseman from the lineup, despite a low batting average, “because he means so much to us defensively.”
Phillips suffered through an 0-for-22 skid on the last road trip but had a double and a home run in Tuesday’s game against the Astros, the last game he started.
Notes, Quotes
• INF/OF Jerry Hairston Jr. started at second base Wednesday, his first start there since the final game of the 2008 season. It was the fourth position at which he has started this season, following left field, third base and right field.
• SS Paul Janish has started four games, and the Reds are 4-0 in those games. He is hitting .357 (5-for-14) and has hit safely in three of those four starts.
• LHP Arthur Rhodes, 39, is 70th on the all-time games list for pitchers with 722, while teammate RHP David Weathers, 39, ranks 20th with 903. Neither has been scored upon this season.
• OF Laynce Nix on Tuesday hit his first major league home run since 2006. He had played only 39 games during the interim. “I hit 50 home runs since the last one in the majors, but they were all in the minors,” he said before contributing two hits while driving in a run and scoring a run Wednesday in the Reds’ 3-0 victory over the Astros.
By The Numbers: 20—Consecutive saves recorded by RHP Francisco Cordero, through April 26. The streak included his last 14 chances in 2008.
Quote To Note: “What we have so far is a six-inning game—if we can get a lead after six innings, we have been able to close it off with Arthur Rhodes, David Weathers and (Francisco) Cordero.”—Pitching coach Dick Pole.
Roster Report
The Reds continued to have problems with the bat, hitting only .233 in their first 18 games, with three regulars hitting under .200. However, they’d found ways to win, mostly with solid starting pitching and impeccable bullpen work. Setup relievers David Weathers and Arthur Rhodes hadn’t given up a run over a combined 17 appearances, and RHP Francisco Cordero was 6-for-6 in save situations through April 26.
Player News:
• RHP Bronson Arroyo (3-1, 6.48 ERA) starts Friday in Pittsburgh against the team that originally drafted him. Arroyo is 2-3 with a 4.07 ERA in seven starts and is 4-5 with a 4.50 ERA for his career in PNC Park over 19 appearances for the Pirates and Reds.
• RHP Mike Lincoln (0-0, 15.12 ERA) continues to struggle out of the bullpen, giving up runs in five of his eight appearances, including runs given up in each of his last three appearances. Lincoln, out of baseball for three full seasons, returned last year to go 2-5 with a 4.48 ERA in 64 relief appearances.
• C Ryan Hanigan will catch RHP Bronson Arroyo for the fifth consecutive time Friday in Pittsburgh. Hanigan is hitting .357 (5-for-14), has hits in all four games and is 3-for-3 throwing out would-be base stealers.
Medical Watch:
OF Chris Dickerson (head) left the April 27 game, and he didn’t play April 28-29. He is day-to-day.
3B Edwin Encarnacion (chip fracture in left wrist) went on the 15-day disabled list April 28. He might miss two to three weeks.