Cardinals send Pineiro to hill in Cincinnati
Baseball Betting Lines
07/03/2009 -
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Joel Pineiro hopes for some run support tonight when the
St. Louis Cardinals begin a three-game set with the Cincinnati Reds at Great
American Ball Park.
Pineiro lost for the ninth time in his last 11 starts on Sunday against the
Minnesota Twins, as he allowed five runs (three earned) and eight hits in 6
2/3 innings, dropping him to 6-9 on the year to go along with a 3.44 earned
run average.
Over the past two months, though, St. Louis has provided Pineiro with an
abysmal 2.34 runs-per-start. His nine losses lead the majors.
Pineiro lost to the Reds earlier in the year and is 3-1 with a 2.97 ERA in
five starts against them.
St. Louis, meanwhile, enters tonight's tilt on a high note after winning the
final two games of its four-game set with the San Francisco Giants. The
Cardinals managed to even the series on Thursday, as Todd Wellemeyer threw 7
1/3 innings to help St. Louis to a 5-2 win.
Wellemeyer (7-7) scattered seven hits and two runs with a walk and six
strikeouts for the Cardinals, who had lost six of seven before the two wins.
"Just one consistent delivery to where the ball looked the same," Wellemeyer
said of his key to success. "Every pitch looks the same out of your hand,
every delivery looks the same. That's how you get them off-balance."
Cincinnati also comes in on a two-game winning streak after Joey Votto's
single to left in the bottom of the 10th on Thursday scored Chris Dickerson
and gave the Reds a 3-2 win over Arizona.
Votto totaled four hits in all while Dickerson was 2-for-4 with an RBI single
of his own as Cincinnati won for the fifth time in seven games.
"Obviously we want to take some sort of momentum going into this Cardinals
series this weekend," said Votto. "I think losing today, especially to have
not scored a lot of runs and to have disappointed Aaron (Harang) today, would
not have been a good thing going into this weekend."
Aaron Harang pitched well, yielding just four hits and two runs over seven
full frames. The right-hander, who remains without a win over his last seven
starts, walked three and struck out eight. Francisco Cordero (1-2) received
the win for pitching a scoreless top half of the 10th.
Cincinnati, tonight, turns to 23-year-old righty Homer Bailey, who will be
making his third start of the season, but is coming off his first win of the
year. Bailey defeated the Cleveland Indians on Saturday, surrendering three
runs and three hits in five innings to lower his ERA to a still-lofty 8.68.
Bailey, though, has been awful in his two starts against the Cardinals, losing
both contests, while giving up 12 runs in just 7 1/3 innings of those
contests.
Cincinnati has won four of its seven meetings with the Cards this season.
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Big 12 Conference betting odds
Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State
Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.
Work left to do:
Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.
Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.
Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.
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