{"id":14859,"date":"2011-04-12T12:55:02","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T17:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=14859"},"modified":"2011-04-12T12:55:02","modified_gmt":"2011-04-12T17:55:02","slug":"nl-betting-chicago-cubs-take-on-houston-astros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nl-betting-chicago-cubs-take-on-houston-astros-14859\/","title":{"rendered":"NL Betting: Chicago Cubs Take On Houston Astros"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Cubs AT Houston Astros<\/strong><\/p>\n

April 12, 2011 at 8:05 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Runline:\u00a0 HOU -1.5 +160, CUB +1.5 -180<\/strong>
\nCurrent Runline:\u00a0 HOU -1.5 +170, CUB +1.5 -205<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 HOU -135, CUB +115<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 HOU -120, CUB +110<\/strong>
\nOpening Total: 8<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 8<\/strong><\/p>\n

SP:\u00a0 CUB- J. Russell, HOU- B. Myers<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Brett Myers has won his last 8 decisions against the Cubs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite some dominant performances so far, Houston’s Brett Myers has yet to record a decision.\u00a0 In two starts and a total of 13 1\/3rd innings pitched, Myers has recorded a 2.03 ERA and has only given up one home run.\u00a0 Last game he held the hot Reds team to only 6 hits and 2 runs in 6 1\/3rd innings, as the Astros won 3-2, notching their first victory of the young season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow good was Myers again?,\u201d manager Brad Mills(notes) told the Astros\u2019 official website. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to love the way he battled all the way through.\u201d<\/p>\n

As good as Myers has been so far, he’s been even better against the Cubs.\u00a0 In 9 starts against the Cubs, Myers has gone 8-0 with a 2.12 ERA.\u00a0 In the only non-decision, he held them to 1 run over seven innings.\u00a0 And last season, he went 3-0 with a 1.21 ERA.\u00a0 This, undoubtedly is why Vegas oddsmakers have set the line in Houston’s favor, despite the Cubs 5-5 record being superior to the Astros 2-8 record.<\/p>\n

Taking the mound for Chicago is a replacement pitcher in James Russell, who has only pitched 2 reserve innings so far.\u00a0 He’s not expected to be on the mound long, but is just a temporary fix while Andrew Cashner heals from injury.\u00a0 Also missing games due to injury is outfielder Kosuke Fukudome.\u00a0 His replacement Starlin Castro hit 3 for 5 in his absense, thus bringing his season batting average up to .364.\u00a0 Also hot that day was Darwin Barney, who had 2 hits for the second straight game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids did really, really well,\u201d manager Mike Quade said of the duo. \u201cI liked watching them. It\u2019s fun to watch them. They feed off of each other, and they play with enthusiasm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castro’s dominance probably won’t carry over in to today’s matchup, however.\u00a0 He is 2 for 12 lifetime against Myers and Aramis Ramirez & Alfanso Soriano have combined to hit 14 of 67 with 24 strikeouts against Myers.\u00a0 The Cubs have won 3 of the last 4 in Houston, but will be up against a difficult proposition in Brett Myers and his Cub-dominance.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER in 5 of the Chicago Cubs’ last 6 games and the total has gone OVER in 4 of their last 6 on the road.\u00a0 The Cubs are 13-4 SU in their last 17 on the road and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of the Cubs’ last 7 games against the Astros.<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER in 7 of Houston’s last 10 games and the Astros are 2-8 SU in their last 10 games.\u00a0 The Astros are 2-5 SU in their last 7 games at home and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of the last 7 games against the Chicago Cubs.<\/p>\n

HOT HITTERS:<\/p>\n

Chicago Cubs:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starlin Castro:\u00a0 .364 BA (16 of 44), .500 SLG, 2 doubles, 2 triples, 1 SB<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alfanso Soriano: .278 BA (10 of 36), .556 SLG, 7 RBIs, 3 HRs, .871 OPS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Houston Astros:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Angel Sanchez:\u00a0 .342 BA (13 of 38), 1 HR, 1 double, 6 RBIs, 1 SB<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hunter Pence:\u00a0 .293 BA (12 for 41), 1 HR, 3 doubles, 5 RBIs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Given Brett Myers’ dominance I have trouble seeing the Cubs winning this game.\u00a0 A moneyline bet on the Astros seems to be a strong bet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago Cubs AT Houston Astros April 12, 2011 at 8:05 PM EST Opening Runline:\u00a0 HOU -1.5 +160, CUB +1.5 -180 Current Runline:\u00a0 HOU -1.5 +170, CUB +1.5 -205 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 HOU -135, CUB +115 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 HOU -120, CUB +110 Opening Total: 8 Current Total:\u00a0 8 SP:\u00a0 CUB- J. Russell, HOU- B. Myers Despite some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":4447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[180,1039],"class_list":["post-14859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-houston-astros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14859"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14861,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14859\/revisions\/14861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}