(My Sportsbook) - A pair of young right-handers coming off recent breakout seasons make their second starts of 2009 tonight, when the Cincinnati Reds visit the Milwaukee Brewers to open a three-game series at Miller Park.

For the Reds, right-hander Edinson Volquez makes his second appearance after dropping a 9-7 decision to the New York Mets Wednesday in Cincinnati, in which he allowed six hits and four earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.

A 25-year-old from the Dominican Republic, Volquez came to the Reds prior to the 2008 season in exchange for outfielder Josh Hamilton. He subsequently made 33 appearances (32 starts) in his initial National League stint, going 17-6 with a 3.21 earned run average in 196 innings.

In 20 appearances with the Texas Rangers between 2005 and 2007, Volquez was 3-11 and allowed 64 earned runs in 80 innings of work.

He faced the Brewers three times in 2008, splitting a pair of decisions while giving up 20 hits and 10 earned runs in 17 2/3 innings, while walking six batters and striking out 22.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee's Yovani Gallardo was a 20-appearance phenom in 2007, starting 17 times and going 9-5 with a 3.67 ERA in 110 1/3 innings.

Injuries limited him to just four regular-season games in 2008, when he compiled just 24 innings of work.

He began 2009 with echoes of his initial year effectiveness, scattering six hits and allowing two runs in 6 2/3 innings of a 4-2 defeat of the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday.

Gallardo started once against the Reds in 2008 and picked up a no decision despite allowing just four hits and a run in seven innings. He defeated Cincinnati once in 2007, giving up six hits and a run in 6 2/3 innings.

Cincinnati is coming off a win on Sunday, when Aaron Harang pitched a complete game and allowed just four baserunners while striking out nine as the Reds edged Pittsburgh, 2-0, in the finale of a rain-shortened weekend series at Great American Ball Park.

Harang (1-1) gave up just three hits and hit a batter in needing 108 pitches - 80 of which were strikes - to go the distance and allow Brandon Phillips' two- run home run in the first inning to hold up.

The workhorse right-hander is coming off a disappointing 2008 season in which he ended with a 6-17 record in addition to missing time due to a forearm injury. Harang bounced back from needing 114 pitches to last five innings in a season-opening loss to the Mets on Monday.

Cincinnati had dropped three of its first four to start off the 2009 season.

In Milwaukee's finale of a three-game set with the Chicago Cubs last night, Alfonso Soriano hit the first pitch of the game for a homer and Reed Johnson made a spectacular catch in the fifth inning to rob Prince Fielder of a grand slam, as the Cubs held off the Brewers, 8-5.

Rickie Weeks had three hits, including a solo homer, and scored three times for Milwaukee. J.J. Hardy drove in two runs and Corey Hart blasted a solo homer, but Milwaukee's wild pitching accounted for 10 walks and a pair of hit batsmen.

Brewers starter Jeff Suppan (0-2) saw his ERA balloon to 12.91 by giving up two hits, six walks and five runs in 3 2/3 innings.

The Reds took 10 of 18 matchups with Milwaukee last season, including six of the nine games played at Miller Park.