Major League Baseball

Arroyo sole veteran in Reds' rotation

Published Oct. 8, 2010 10:22 p.m. ET

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Before Philadelphia's Roy Halladay took his no-hit turn at postseason baseball history Wednesday night, the Cincinnati Reds already were aware of the Himalayan-size obstacles the top three pitchers in the Phillies rotation presented.

"We don't have three clear-cut choices to pitch," Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker said.

"You could put Halladay, (Roy) Oswalt and (Cole) Hamels in a hat, put your hand in there and come out with a No. 1," he said. "We have guys that are approaching No. 1."

At least, Baker hopes so. Down 1-0 in the best-of-five National League divisional series, the Reds will encounter Oswalt at 6:07 tonight in Citizens Bank Park. Cincinnati will turn to 17-game winner Bronson Arroyo.

Five years after the Reds acquired Arroyo in a trade with the Boston Red Sox, he knows that he is the senior presence in an otherwise young rotation.

One-time running mate Aaron Harang isn't active for the series and really wasn't a factor in the team's rise to the top of the Central Division this season. Newer faces such as Travis Wood and Mike Leake in the rotation and Aroldis Chapman in the bullpen have added the depth beyond the old one-two punch.

"We didn't have anybody like that back in '06," Arroyo said. Then-general manager "Wayne Krivsky used to tell me that they wanted to build the team around the pitching staff."

"It's kind of a crapshoot in the draft to get guys who can come through the organization. It's not every day that you get guys like Leake and Wood to come out of the minor leagues and do what they have done for us."

But Wood is likely to have long-relief duty in the postseason, and Leake was shut down with a tired shoulder in late August, so the Reds will turn to Arroyo in a Phillies-mad ballpark as they look up at another cloud-covered mountain peak.

Arroyo looks forward to the climb.

"This has been five years in the making," he said. "I was in the playoffs three years in a row with Boston. It was like we knew we were going to win 100 games a year. To play for something after the regular season ends is where it's at. Winning brings a lot of things out."

jmassie@dispatch.com

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