Arroyo (1-2) allowed three runs in five innings, including Adam Jones’ two-run homer in the fifth. The victory was Arroyo’s first since June 15, 2014, for Arizona against the Dodgers. That was his last appearance before elbow and shoulder injuries knocked him out of action until this month. The longtime Red got his first win with Cincinnati since Sept. 22, 2013.
“I have to be Houdini, just being out of the game for 2 1/2 years,” Arroyo said. “Hardly anybody comes back from elbow and shoulder surgeries, let alone both in the same year. I’m encouraged by tonight. I felt a little crisper with the sinker and the breaking ball. It was huge to get the lead. I was able to attack the zone. I didn’t need to worry about a two-run homer.”
The right-hander became the first Cincinnati pitcher to win at his age since 40-year-old Boom-Boom Beck beat the Phillies 8-1 on May 31, 1945.
Manager Bryan Price might’ve been happier for Arroyo than Arroyo himself.
“You have no idea how thrilled I am for Bronson,” said the former Reds pitching coach, who logged his 500th game as Cincinnati’s manager. “Bronson is one of my favorite relationships I had with a player. We always stayed in touch, in the offseason when he was here and in-season and the offseason after he left. I really value him as a person. It is a relationship that transcends the coach-player relationship.”
In both teams’ first interleague game of the season, Duvall snapped an 0-for-13 slump with a first-inning sacrifice fly and his fourth homer of the season in a five-run second inning, Cincinnati’s highest-scoring frame of the season. The Reds sent nine batters to the plate in the second, and Duvall tied a career-high with five RBIs.
Votto lined a shot to right field off Vidal Nuno in the third for his fourth homer of the season.
Cincinnati bounced back after losing three of four at home to Milwaukee.
Billy Hamilton singled in each of his first two at-bats to snap an 0-for-14 slump, one short of matching the longest hitless stretch of his career, and Jose Peraza doubled just before Votto’s homer to stop an 0-for-9 skid.
Peraza walked in his first two plate appearances and scored a run in each of the first three innings. His double knocked right-hander Kevin Gausman (1-1) out of the game after 2 2/3 innings. Gausman allowed eight runs, eight hits and three walks while striking out two.
“I think my front hip was coming open and I couldn’t drive my four-seamer down-and-away,” Gausman said. “Today was like my first two starts, where the ball was coming back to the middle of the plate.”
The Reds scored all their runs in the first three innings. Nine runs are the most allowed by Baltimore this season.
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