Posted on
4/25/2008 4:03:41 PM
MLB Baseball Betting - Cubs vs. Nationals
By Mike Rose
The online baseball betting friendly Cubs got their six-game winning streak snapped yesterday afternoon at Coors Field when Aaron Cook and the Rockies got the best of them in the 4-2 victory. The Cubs Jason Marquis put forth his second straight quality start going seven strong and allowing just two earned runs on eight hits, but the Rockies Aaron Cook was better going eight innings and allowing just two earned runs and four hits to pick up his third win of the season. The loss dropped the Cubs to 15-7 on the year, but they still hold a 1.5-game lead over St. Louis for the top spot in the NL Central. The Nationals come into this evenings match-up winners in just three of their L/10 overall, but they did pick up a resounding 10-5 victory last night against the NY Mets. The offense erupted for 13 hits and 10 runs, and the Nats pitching staff combined to put forth a decent effort. The 10 runs scored was the first time the Nats reached the double-digit mark since their second game of the season against the Phillies back on March 31st.
Ryan Dempster will toe the bump for the fifth time this year looking to pick up his fourth victory of the season. So far, his experiment back in Chicago’s starting rotation has been stellar. The Cubs have won all four of his starts, and he owns a personal mark of 3-0 with a miniscule 3.00 ERA. His heavy workload in the off-season has paid off so far. He’s allowed just 14 hits and eight earned runs in 24 innings of work with a K/BB ratio of 16/11. He was cruising in his last start against Pittsburgh up until the fifth inning where he got hit hard and allowed the Pirates to tally three runs. Dempster is 5-0 with a 3.86 ERA and 1.801 WHIP in 10 career starts against the Expos/Nationals.
Opposing him will be the Nats lefty Odalis Perez who comes into this start 0-3 with a respectable 3.38 ERA. He’s allowed 29 hits and 11 runs (10 earned) with a K/BB ratio of 20/12 in just less than 27 total innings of work. He’s pitched well enough to win a number of games this season, but either the Nats offense or defense let him down in every start. Lifetime, Perez is 3-1 with a nifty 3.54 ERA and 0.929 WHIP in four starts against Chicago.
Chicago opened –130 road favorites with the ‘total’ set at 9.5 under –115. You can get down on both the ‘side’ and ‘total’ at BetUS.com right now!!!
The Cubs are 6-1 this season against left-handed starters, and they’ve beaten up on losing teams winning 10 of 15 games. They’re also 6-1 the L/7 times they’ve squared off against Washington, and 6-1 their L/8 when installed a favorite between –110 to –150. The Nats have only managed one win the L/11 times they stared back at a right-hander, and have only cashed their backers tickets 7 of the L/26 times they were installed a home underdog between +110 and +150.
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