posted April 16, 2008 at 19:44 EST in MLB Betting Trends

The Sports betting online community will see National League powers collide Friday evening when the (6-3) Chicago Cubs invade Citizens Bank Park to take on the (4-6) Philadelphia Phillies. The Cubbies just went into PNC and busted out the brooms sweeping the Pirates to improve their road mark to (3-0) on the young season. Geovany Soto and Jon Lieber stepped up huge for the Cubs. Lefty starter Rich Hill only lasted three innings, and that was the last thing Lou Piniella wanted to see after his bullpen had been extended after the first two games of the series went into extra innings. Lieber picked up the slack and his first win of the season by going 4 1/3rd innings allowing five hits, but most importantly, no runs in the Cubs 7-3 victory. Geovany Soto had a huge night going 4-for-5 with a huge two-run bomb in the 6th that allowed the Cubs to take the lead for good. The Phillies lost a heartbreaker in Shea last night in extra’s after battling back in the 7th and 8th innings to tie it up at three apiece. The game ended on a controversial call at the plate when Jose Reyes looked to have been gunned down, but home plate ump Ted Barrett called him safe, and the Phills ended up losing the rubber game of the three game set. They’re really struggling at the plate right now, and not executing when it’s needed most. They went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position leading manager Charlie Manuel to say, "We had a lot of opportunities, but couldn't get the right hit at the right time. Our batting average is down and our run production is down."

Looking to build off his fabulous start against Houston his last time out will be Carlos Zambrano. “Big Z” enters this start 1-0 on the year with a 1.32 ERA. Thankfully, cramps didn’t hinder his second start of the season that saw him go seven innings allowing seven hits and two earned runs while striking out seven and walking none. When Zambrano can grasp his control, he’s one of the nastiest pitchers in the bigs. So far so good as he’s only walked one batter through his first two starts. He didn’t face the Phillies last season, but the Cubs have won each of his L/3 starts against them.

Opposing him will be Brett Myers who hasn’t gotten off to the greatest of starts this year. He was roughed up by Washington and Cincinnati, and comes into this spot sporting a 0-1 mark with a bloated 6.30 ERA. He’s allowed 13 hits and eight runs in just 10 innings of work while striking out six and walking five. However, he’s 5-3 with a solid 2.53 ERA in 11 career starts against the Cubs.

The Cubs opened up short –110 road favorites with the ‘total’ set at 8.5 over (-125). You can get down on both the ‘side’ and ‘total’ for this NL battle at BetUS.com right now!

Philly has simply had the Cubs number of late winning 11 of the L/16 overall meetings, and they’ve won 4 of the L/5 times these clubs have squared off at Citizens Bank Park. The under has also been very profitable going 21-10-3 the L/34 meetings, and 4-1 in Brett Myers L/5 starts against them. Making the under that much sweeter is the fact that its gone 11-1-1 in Zambrano’s L/13 road starts.

Go to the BetUS sportsbook today and take a swing at Major League Baseball online betting. We have the most current baseball odds and lines, as well as player, game and series props throughout the MLB baseball season. To help you bet on sports, check out the Free Picks section of the Locker Room for sports betting free picks and predictions. Join BetUS to experience the best in online sports betting action!