Reds’ Arroyo and Dunn keep Tribe plummeting

Cleveland begins an 8-game road trip against the A.L. Central tonight in Chicago.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Bronson Arroyo pitched worse and somehow got much better results.

The Cincinnati Reds’ right-hander bounced back from the worst start of his career and Adam Dunn hit a three-run homer in a 9-5 win over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday.

Arroyo (5-7) struck out six and gave up two runs over six innings for the Reds, who took five of six from their intrastate rivals this season.

The Indians went 6-12 against NL teams and have lost eight of their last 12 overall. Today, they go to Chicago to open an eight-game trip — all against AL Central opponents.

It will be the most crucial stretch of the season for the injury-riddled Indians, who have two starting pitchers and three position players from last year’s division champions on the disabled list.

“It is going to make it or break it for us,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “This is what it’s all about. These are the teams in front of us and it will tell us what we need to know one way or the other.”

More losses could lead general manager Mark Shapiro to decide to dump high-priced veterans — including free-agent-to-be C.C. Sabathia, the reigning AL Cy Young winner who is coveted by so many clubs.

“We’re trying to hold the fort until we get guys back,” Sabathia said. “We get some wins, get players back, we’re still good.”

Edwin Encarnacion, back in the Reds lineup after missing five games with back spasms, hit a two-run homer in a five-run fifth off Aaron Laffey (4-5). Dunn connected off Rick Bauer in the seventh, a 412-foot shot to right that was his 20th of the season and fifth against Cleveland.

Dunn, well known as a streak hitter, hit .300 (6-for-20) with 10 RBIs against the Indians.

“When I’m going bad, I’m the worst,” said Dunn, who is batting just .224 overall. “Hopefully, I’ll eliminate the bad stretches and keep this going.”

Arroyo won for the first time in six starts since May 26. Tuesday in Toronto, the right-hander was rocked for 10 runs, including four in the second inning when he didn’t get an out. That dropped him to 0-3 with a 10.07 ERA in five starts in June.

“I threw a lot more bad pitches today than I did in Toronto,” Arroyo said. “I hung a lot of breaking balls. I got away with a lot. They were popping them up. It shows how strange this game is sometimes.”