"We're a little cold," leadoff man Nyjer Morgan said afterward. "No question about it."

Five paltry singles.

Eight total baserunners.

Two men setting foot on second base.

And, going back a bit further, no runs in the past two games or the past 22 innings, a span in which the Pirates have mustered nine hits, two for extra bases. Not since Adam LaRoche homered twice Sunday in San Diego have they put one over a fence.

Arroyo had been lugging a 6.48 ERA and was fresh off a nine-run, nine-hit, three-walk debacle against the Atlanta Braves this past weekend, but he stifled the Pirates through his eight scoreless innings, scattering three hits and shrugging off his only serious threat -- Morgan and Freddy Sanchez singled to open the Pirates' first -- with a 6-4-3 double play out of Nate McLouth.

"I think it was partly the pitching, partly us," Pirates manager John Russell said. "Arroyo did a nice job after the first. He's a master at changing speeds and he kept us off balance. But, hey, we've got to find ways to score. We're in one of those funks that every team goes through. Unfortunately, because we're the Pirates , it maybe gets magnified a little more from the outside. But we'll be fine, especially if we keep pitching like that."

By that, Russell meant another strong effort by Zach Duke, who allowed one run on six hits over seven innings. His ERA dropped to 2.21, but his record fell, too, to 3-2.

More important, the Pirates have lost four games in a row and are back at .500, at 11-11.

While several players in addition to Morgan acknowledged some team-wide pressing at the plate, praise also flowed liberally for Arroyo, who mixed good command of his fastball with that sweeping 68-mph curve and plenty in between.

"You can see the ball, but it's moving a lot," Pirates catcher Jason Jaramillo said. "It's not easy to hit it."

"That looked like the same Arroyo I've seen every time we've faced him," third baseman Andy LaRoche said. "He put the ball where he wanted."

Arroyo cited the McLouth double play in the first as key.

"I had those two guys on early, but my command was good, and I just thought, 'If I can get through this inning without any runs, I'll be all right,' " Arroyo said. "Luckily, I got that double play."

Duke was only marginally less effective, limiting Cincinnati to three singles through five innings before finally getting nicked in the sixth: Willy Taveras led off with a book-rule double into the North Side Notch and, after he was bunted to third, Joey Votto's shot up the middle brought him home.

"I felt good out there, had good command, but I just got outpitched by Bronson," Duke said. "I made one mistake, missed a spot to Taveras and left it out over the plate. He got the double, and that was that."

Duke was crisp with the fastball, as usual, and leaned more than the norm on his changeup, especially against right-handers. The latter pitch allowed him to escape a bases-loaded jam later in that sixth, drawing a third-out comebacker from Alex Gonzalez.

John Grabow relieved Duke for the eighth, and Brandon Phillips powered his first-pitch fastball above the Clemente Wall to put Cincinnati ahead, 2-0.

Tyler Yates allowed two unearned runs in the ninth.

Today

?Game: Pirates (Ohlendorf 2-2) vs. Reds (Owings 1-2), 7:05 p.m.

?Where: PNC Park.

?TV: FSN Pittsburgh.