Kansas City @ Cincinnati preview
Great American Ball Park
Last Meeting ( Mar 8, 2010 ) Kansas City 5, Cincinnati 14
It took a couple games for the Cincinnati Reds to get settled in on their long homestand and now they have a chance to get on a roll.
The Reds continue their 10-game homestand Friday when they host the Kansas City Royals in an interleague series matchup.
One of the surprise teams of the season, the Reds have a 1 ½-game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals for the lead in the National League Central Division.
Cincinnati opened its homestand with a pair of losses to the San Francisco Giants. The Reds rallied to win the final two games of the series and look to build on their division lead with three games against the Royals.
When talking about the Reds as a surprise team, the emphasis has to be on the word team. Manager Dusty Baker is getting contributions from a number of players both young and old.
Joey Votto leads Cincinnati in batting average at .308 while veteran Scott Rolen leads in homers and RBIs (14-42) and Brandon Phillips has scored 42 runs.
Aaron Harang leads the pitching staff with five wins and Francisco Cordero has 17 saves in 21 opportunities. But the story of the pitching staff for the Reds this season has been the performance of longtime veteran Arthur Rhodes.
Rhodes went 1 2/3 scoreless innings Thursday, his longest outing in two years and pushed his scoreless streak to 25 innings. Rhodes has the longest scoreless innings streak in the majors by a reliever this year. Not bad for a 40-year-old with a foot injury.
Kansas City avoided a sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Twins with a 9-8 victory on Thursday. The Royals are 4-5 this month and will be looking for a repeat performance against the Reds from a year ago, when they swept a three-game interleague series.
Bronson Arroyo does not have a win against Kansas City in four appearances, including two starts, but he gets another chance today for Cincinnati.
Arroyo (5-3, 4.65 ERA) gave up two runs and six hits in his last start but got a no-decision in Cincinnati's 5-4 victory over Washington.
Luke Hochevar (5-4, 4.74) gets the start for Kansas City and is coming off two straight losses. In his last start, the former No. 1 overall pick struck out a season-high 10 batters but still came up on the wrong end of the decision in a 4-2 loss to Detroit.