Cardinals Joins Halladay Down Cubs

Baseball Betting Lines

Matt Thornton retired all six batters he faced to pick up his third save of the season.

 

The Cubs grounded into double plays in their opening three at-bats, providing little help offensively as Garza strolled through the first five frames.

 

"I was out of the dugout as the play was developing," Quade said. "I don't manufacture stuff. I was mad. Paul's a good umpire, but I thought he was way off the bag."

 

The home team sends Rodrigo Lopez to the hill in his third start of 2011. The righty threw 4 2/3 innings on Tuesday against the Giants, but suffered the loss after yielding eight hits and four runs -- one earned. In two starts this season, he is 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA compared to a 4.00 ERA in nine relief appearances.

 

Lopez is 2-2 with an 8.04 ERA in nine games (five starts) against the Southsiders.

 

There hasn't been four straight shutouts thrown by one pitcher since the Dodgers' Orel Hershiser had five in a row in 1988.

 

Opposing offenses have struggled to find hits against Lee. He's thrown two-hit shutouts in two of the last three games, those coming against Boston on Tuesday and vs. Florida on June 16. In between those, he limited St. Louis to six hits in another shutout.

 

On the other side will be Jo-Jo Reyes, who tries to stop a two-start losing streak. The southpaw was lifted after giving up nine hits and six runs over 3 2/3 innings of a defeat to the Pirates on Tuesday. In his career, right-handed batters have hit for a .312 mark. He's 0-3 with a 6.99 ERA in six games (4 starts) vs. the Phillies.

 

When the welcoming ceased, Halladay (11-3) went to work, scattering three runs on eight hits and a walk while fanning eight en route to his second straight complete game and sixth of the 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.