By John Fay - Cincinnati Enquirer Staff
MILWAUKEE - Bronson Arroyo was perfect for three innings - literally, nine up, nine down.
But he started the fourth inning by walking Rickie Weeks. When Bill Hall followed with a bunt single, Arroyo knew he was dancing with disaster.
"Two guys on, no outs," Arroyo said. "Those are the kind of innings that can explode on you. And it did."
The Milwaukee Brewers did all of their damage in the fourth inning in a 5-2 Fourth of July victory over the Reds before 39,280 at Miller Park.
The Reds have lost four straight games. At 44-40, they are back to four games over .500 for the first time since they were 28-24 on May 30.
Arroyo appeared ready to play the role of stopper. Through three innings, he had allowed only one hard-hit ball while striking out three.
But Weeks walked on a 3-1 checked swing.
"There were some pitches that could have gone either way," Arroyo said.
Hall's bunt was not perfect.
"But we were playing back," Arroyo said. "It was good enough."
Geoff Jenkins got a run in with a double.
"That was the only really bad pitch of the inning," Reds manager Jerry Narron said.
Carlos Lee hit an 0-2 breaking ball to right field to make it 2-0.
Prince Fielder just missed a home run to right but drove in another run to make it 3-0.
Corey Koskie followed with a two-run homer.
And it was 5-0.
"We'd like to be able to redo the fourth," Narron said. "Other than that, all Bronson gave up was the bloop hit to Doug Davis in the seventh."
It was the worst inning of the year for Arroyo. He had not given up more than three runs in any inning all season. In fact, he gave up five earned runs in only one other start - April 16 at St. Louis.
After Koskie's home run, Arroyo would give up only the flare to Davis.
The Reds, however, never got anything going against Davis, which is not surprising. He is 6-2 with a 3.31 ERA against them.
The Reds squandered an opportunity in the first inning.
Brandon Phillips started the game with a single but was picked off at first base. It went down as a 1-3-6 caught stealing, breaking Phillips' streak of 16 successful steal attempts.
Adam Dunn followed with a single. But Dunn was running when Ken Griffey Jr. hit one in the right-field corner. Jenkins caught it, and Dunn was easily doubled off first - he didn't even make it back to second, in fact.
Two hits, no runs, no runners left.
"You get a couple of hits and don't score," Narron said. "It's disappointing."
The Reds finally broke through in the seventh.
Austin Kearns doubled, and Scott Hatteberg followed with his seventh home run of the year.
Davis retired six more in a row before the Reds made it interesting in the ninth.
Rich Aurilia singled with two out, and Kearns walked.
That was all for Davis.
The Brewers brought in left-hander Brian Shouse to face Hatteberg.
Narron countered by pinch hitting Ryan Freel for Hatteberg, who was 0-for-17 against Shouse.
"Freel does a great job, especially against left-handers," Narron said. "I thought it was a good matchup."
But Freel flied out to left to end the game.
