Astros go for series win at Petco
Baseball Betting Lines
07/02/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Astros shoot for a series win this afternoon over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park, where the two ballclubs will wrap up a four-game set.
Houston has won five of its last seven games, including two of the first three matchups with the Padres. In Wednesday's 7-1 victory, Carlos Lee, Geoff Blum and Kaz Matsui all drove in runs to pull the Astros within four games of the top spot in the National League Central division. Matsui ended with two hits and Darin Erstad scored a pair of runs for Houston, which has won seven of the last eight encounters with San Diego.
Houston also swept a three-game series from San Diego from May 8-10 of this season. Astros starter Brian Moehler pitched six innings of one-run ball and scattered four hits with four walks and eight strikeouts to pick up the win.
"It was more of a stress game, but they were down 6-1 so I didn't think I had to be perfect with everything," said Moehler. "I just tried to limit the amount of damage. We made some pitches when we had to and we made some plays when we needed to."
The Astros will hand the ball to Wandy Rodriguez on Thursday and he is 6-6 with a 3.35 ERA in 16 starts this season. Rodriguez is 1-0 in his last two stints since going 0-4 in five previous trips to the hill. He is coming off a no-decision against Detroit on June 26, when he yielded four runs and seven hits in six innings of a 5-4 triumph.
Houston has now won three of his last four starts. Rodriguez, who is 3-4 in eight road outings this season, defeated San Diego earlier this year on May 8 with eight shutout innings of five-hit ball. The lefty also struck out seven batters and issued no walks, improving to 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in his last three starts in this series.
In five career games, four of which have been starts, against San Diego, Rodriguez is 2-2 with a 5.47 earned run average.
San Diego lost for the 12th time in 18 tries last night and didn't get much help from starting pitcher Walter Silva. Silva yielded six runs, three of which were earned, and five hits in four innings of work to absorb the loss.
Eliezer Alfonzo homered and Tony Gwynn added a pair of hits for the Friars, who were set back by a costly throwing error by third baseman Chase Headley with the bases loaded in the fourth inning. Headley fired an errant throw on a roller hit by Moehler and the bases were cleared for a 6-1 Houston lead.
"It comes down to one play," said Headley. "If I make that play at third then we have a chance. It's hard to battle back."
Padres All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez was in the lineup yesterday after straining his right knee in Tuesday's win. He appeared in his 284th consecutive game and now sits 21 shy of Steve Garvey's franchise mark. He finished 0-for-3 with his major league-leading 64th walk Wednesday.
San Diego starter Kevin Correia has been the ace of the staff lately and will try to run his personal win streak to three straight starts tonight in the finale of this four-game series versus the Astros.
Correia has taken over as the top arm in the rotation with Jake Peavy and Chris Young sidelined because of injury, and has won two straight and four of his last five trips to the mound. Correia previously pitched on June 27 at Texas and held the Rangers to three runs in seven innings with a career-high nine strikeouts in a 7-3 victory.
The right-hander, who is 5-5 with a 4.23 ERA in 15 starts, also sports a 3-2 mark in nine home games this season. Correia will face Houston for the second time this season after not factoring in the outcome of a 5-4 loss on May 9 at Minute Maid Park. He allowed two runs and four hits in six innings, and is 0-0 with a 3.06 ERA in six career games (2 starts) versus the Astros.
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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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