Cardinals aim to stop skid, avoid sweep against Astros
Baseball Betting Lines
09/01/2010 -
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals are playing themselves out of
postseason contention, but at least they'll be able to conclude a horrendous
road trip today in the finale of a three-game series against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.
St. Louis has lost four in a row and is 2-7 on a 10-game swing through
Pittsburgh, Washington and Houston -- all teams with losing records. It has
been shut out in back-to-back 3-0 losses to the Astros and fell seven games
behind Cincinnati for the NL Central lead after Tuesday's defeat.
Houston scored all three of its runs in the third inning and Cardinals co-ace
Chris Carpenter was saddled with the loss for allowing three runs -- two
earned -- and six hits through seven innings. Jon Jay, Matt Holliday and
Brendan Ryan provided the three hits for the Cardinals, who still have life in
the wild card standings at four games behind Philadelphia.
"Unfortunately it's not going well for us right now," said Carpenter. "We
gotta come out [Wednesday] and do everything we can and try to salvage
something from this series."
The Cardinals, losers in 12 of their last 16 games, must not overlook today's
opponent with the despised Reds set to invade Busch Stadium for three games
over the weekend.
Jeff Suppan will be in charge of pulling the Cards to victory and is slated to
take the mound Wednesday. Suppan has been on the disabled list with a groin
strain and is just 1-4 in eight starts with the Cardinals. He was 0-4 in his
previous five outings before besting Pittsburgh the last time out on July 31,
when he delivered 5 1/3 shutout innings and five strikeouts.
Suppan, a right-hander, lost to Houston back on July 10, when he permitted
four runs in 4 2/3 innings of a 4-1 loss. He is 3-8 with a 5.12 earned run
average in 19 career meetings (17 starts) with the Astros.
Houston has been on a roll as of late with eight wins in its last 10 contests.
It will be aiming for its second sweep of the Cardinals this season and won
all three encounters with them from May 11-13 in the Gateway City.
In last night's second straight blanking of the Cardinals, starter Wandy
Rodriguez hurled seven shutout innings of two-hit ball for the win and Brandon
Lyon later posted his 10th save in the ninth.
"It's becoming a nice habit to say that our starting pitching did an
outstanding job," said Houston manager Brad Mills. "And again, Wandy did a
great job again tonight. He's been outstanding for the past two or three
months."
Hunter Pence hit a two-run triple during the decisive three-run fourth inning
and Chris Johnson added an RBI single two batters later.
Taking the mound for Houston this afternoon will be Nelson Figueroa and he's
1-1 with a 2.15 ERA in 11 games (3 starts) for his ballclub. Figueroa, who
also made 13 appearances (1 start) for Philadelphia this season, lost his most
recent start on Friday in a 2-1 defeat against the New York Mets. He allowed
only two runs -- one earned -- in seven innings.
The right-hander is 2-1 with a 4.14 ERA in 12 career games (4 starts) against
the Cardinals.
Houston has won nine of 14 meetings with the Cardinals this season.
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Group C: China vs. Russia, 9 a.m. (Ankara)
Group A: Serbia vs. Australia, 9:30 a.m. (Kayseri)
Group B: Croatia vs. Tunisia, 9:30 a.m. (Istanbul)
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Huskers' Lucky hospitalized for undisclosed reason
LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky was hospitalized Monday for undisclosed reasons after Lincoln police responded to a call at his residence.
The Nebraska athletic department said in a release Monday that Lucky was admitted Sunday night.
MySportsbook.com has the Cornhuskers listed at +2500 to win the BCS National Championship odds.
A nursing supervisor at the hospital said all questions about Lucky were being referred to the athletic department. The athletic department said there would be no further comment from the department or Lucky's family.
A Lincoln Police spokesman said officers responded to a call at Lucky's residence 11:30 p.m. Sunday. The spokesman said he didn't know Lucky's condition at the time he was taken to the hospital.
Lucky, from North Hollywood, Calif., started six games last season as a sophomore and was the team's second-leading rusher, with 728 yards and six touchdowns. He also caught 32 passes for 383 yards. He averaged 19.1 yards on eight kickoff returns.
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