Arroyo Beats Cubs, Cardinals Hand Brewers Loss

By ESPN

With his high leg kick and below-the-radar breaking balls, Bronson Arroyo showed the Cubs a little old-style pitching. Who needs to throw 90 mph to beat the World Series champions?

The 40-year-old righty gave his best performance yet in his long comeback from elbow problems, pitching three-hit ball over six innings on Sunday, and the Cincinnati Reds salvaged a 7-5 victory. Arroyo worked fast, varied the angles of his deliveries, and kept `em guessing with his minimalist pitches.

"I'm happy for him, to see him back up," Chicago catcher Miguel Montero said. "He's a tough pitcher to face. Obviously he's throwing below hitting speed right now."

Arroyo (2-2) needed more than two years to recover from Tommy John surgery. The Reds gave him what amounted to a final chance this spring, and he's back to fooling `em with his unusual repertoire. Jon Jay saw pitches of 67, 74, 83, 75 and 70 mph during one at-bat.

"I don't want to say I had pinpoint control, but I was throwing the breaking ball down and out where it was almost impossible to hit," Arroyo said. "They knew where I was going, but I still had enough late movement to surprise them."

Arroyo allowed Anthony Rizzo's two-run homer -- his third of the series -- and struck out seven batters for the first time since May 13, 2014.

"This was the first time he looked like the Bronson of his first time through here," manager Bryan Price said, referring to Arroyo's 2006-13 stay in Cincinnati.

Raisesl Iglesias gave up a pair of runs in the ninth before finishing off the Reds' 3-7 homestand.

Patrick Kivlehan's bases-loaded double highlighted a four-run sixth inning off John Lackey (1-3) and decided a matchup of up-in-years starters. The 38-year-old Lackey and Arroyo have combined for 793 starts in the majors.

Despite the loss, the defending champs took two of three in the series and moved back into first place in the NL Central. No surprise that it happened in Cincinnati -- the Cubs have won 17 of their last 22 at Great American Ball Park. They've taken 20 of their last 25 overall against the Reds.

"I have nothing to complain about," manager Joe Maddon said.

Rizzo extended his hitting streak to 12 games -- matching his career high -- with his two-run homer in the fourth inning. His three-run shot with two outs in the ninth helped the Cubs rally for a 6-5, 11-inning victory in the series opener. He had another three-run homer during a 12-8 win on Saturday.

The Cubs have homered in their last 15 games at Great American. They hit seven in all during the series.

Cardinals 6, Brewers 4

Mike Leake overcame some uncharacteristic wildness on the mound and helped himself at the plate.

Leake allowed two runs over six innings and drove in two runs to lead St. Louis to a 6-4 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday, the Cardinals' sixth win in seven games.

Leake (3-1) gave up three hits and three walks while striking out six. He scored a run in the third inning and his two-run single capped a three-run fourth when St. Louis took a 4-2 lead.

"I thought he pulled it together when he needed to," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "Those lead walks kind of atypical from what we've seen, free bases at all, really, with what he's done and how well he's controlled the strike zone."

In his first three starts, Leake had walked just one in 21 1/3 innings. Two of his walks Sunday resulted in runs.

"It was just one of those days, not being able to completely pinpoint where I wanted it," Leake said. "But, I was able to at least get what I needed done and get a win."

The Cardinals took advantage of six walks by Jimmy Nelson (1-1) and an error by the Brewers for their first four runs.

Nelson's lack of command led to the three runs in the fourth. Stephen Piscotty and Randal Grichuk walked to open the inning. Kolton Wong's one-out double off the glove of center fielder Keon Broxton on the warning track scored Piscotty. Eric Fryer drew a two-out walk and Leake followed with a single to left-center.

"Walks are always frustrating," said Nelson, who led the N.L. in walks last season with 86 when he struggled to an 8-16 mark. "I went through a stretch there where I lost some (velocity). I haven't gone back and watched video of it, so it's still digesting."

St. Louis made it 6-2 in the eighth on RBI singles by Fryer and pinch-hitter Matt Adams.

Manny Pina opened the ninth inning for Milwaukee with his first homer and Jonathan Villar added an RBI single.

Nelson, who had walked just three in his first three starts, allowed four runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings. He is now 0-8 in 10 games, including nine starts, against St. Louis.

"He just got in a bad spot to me for that one inning, with the three walks in that one inning," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "That was the inning that really hurt him. I was proud of how he bounced back. He recovered. We were a really nice play from Keon away from really limiting the damage there. But he came back in the fifth and did a really nice job and he got an out in the sixth for us."

The Brewers took a 1-0 lead in the first when Eric Thames reached on a fielder's choice and scored from first on Ryan Braun's double down the left-field line.

The Cardinals answered with an unearned run in the third. Leake reached with two outs on a fielding error by third baseman Travis Shaw. Dexter Fowler walked and Aledmys Diaz followed with an RBI single to left.

Milwaukee countered in the bottom half on a walk to Villar, a single by Thames and Shaw's sacrifice fly to make it 2-1.

St. Louis won despite several base-running mistakes. Piscotty was caught stealing in the second, Wong was picked off second base by catcher Pina, and Diaz was picked off first in the seventh.

"It hurts when we're giving away outs," Matheny said. "Two of those were aggressive, one was maybe not being aware of the situation as well he should be. Just continuing to teach, continuing to try and clean it up, because whether it's errors in the field or errors on the bases, it's something that right now we can't do and expect to win on a consistent basis."

White Sox 6, Indians 2

Although the Chicago White Sox have gotten off to a rough start offensively, Tim Anderson is confident the lineup will produce.

Sunday was a step in that direction.

Melky Cabrera drove in a pair of runs, Derek Holland tossed six strong innings and Chicago busted out of an offensive funk for a 6-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians.

Avisail Garcia and Leury Garcia each added run-scoring hits for Chicago, which had managed a total of six hits in the first two games of the series. The win snapped a three-game skid.

"We're gonna pick it up," said Anderson, who is the White Sox shortstop. "A win like this is definitely something we can build off of."

Francisco Lindor homered for Cleveland, which had its five-game winning streak end.

Holland (2-2) allowed one run on three hits in six innings. He walked three and struck out six in lowering his earned run average to 1.99.

"He was mixing up speeds, hitting his spots, coming hard in to righties," Indians left fielder Brandon Guyer said. "He had good stuff today, pretty similar to the last time we faced him."

Indians starter Danny Salazar (1-2) allowed four runs on seven hits in five innings.

Following back-to-back three-hit shutouts, the White Sox broke through immediately Sunday.

Anderson led off the bottom of the first with a double and advanced to third on a single by Tyler Saladino. Cabrera then drove in Anderson with a sacrifice fly to left field to make it 1-0, snapping a 23-inning scoreless streak for Chicago. Cleveland pitchers also entered with a 23-inning scoreless streak.

Jose Abreu followed with a line-drive single and the ball scooted past right fielder Abraham Almonte -- allowing Saladino to score from first base and Abreu to advance to third. Two batters later, Leury Garcia singled to drive in Abreu and make it 3-0.

"I didn't have that great a feeling with the change-up the whole game," Salazar said. "I try to do the best I can out there. Not thinking about (the error). Abraham has made some amazing plays for me out there."

Cleveland got a run back in the fourth on a lead-off home run by Lindor.

In the top of the fifth, Austin Jackson led off with a double and Almonte followed with a walk. Both runners then advanced a base on a wild pitch. But Holland struck out three of the next four batters -- working around a two-out walk to Carlos Santana to load the bases -- to escape the jam. A strikeout of Lindor ended the threat.

"It was a big jam because he had some guys coming up there that could do some damage," Chicago manager Rick Renteria said.

Sunday, April 23 Scoreboard

Cincinnati 7, Chicago Cubs 5

Houston 6, Tampa Bay 4 (F/10)

Boston 6, Baltimore 2

Philadelphia 5, Atlanta 2

Pittsburgh 2, New York Yankees 1

Chicago White Sox 6, Cleveland 2

St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 4

Detroit 13, Minnesota 4

Texas 5, Kansas City 2

Colorado 8, San Francisco 0

Toronto 6, Los Angeles Angels 2

Seattle 11, Oakland 1

Los Angeles Dodgerse 6, Arizona 2

Miami 7, San Diego 3

Washington 6, New York Mets 3

Monday, April 24 Schedule (All Times Central)

Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh, 6 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Baltimore, 6:05 p.m.

Cincinnati at Milwaukee, 6:40 p.m.

Minnesota at Texas, 7:05 p.m.

Kansas City at Chicago White Sox, 7:10 p.m.

Washington at Colorado, 7:40 p.m.

San Diego at  Arizona, 8:40 p.m.

Toronto at Los Angeles Angels, 9:07 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco, 9:15 p.m.