{"id":15243,"date":"2011-05-02T14:21:22","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T19:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=15243"},"modified":"2011-05-02T14:21:22","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T19:21:22","slug":"nl-central-showdown-houston-astros-at-cincinnati-reds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nl-central-showdown-houston-astros-at-cincinnati-reds-15243\/","title":{"rendered":"NL Central Showdown: Houston Astros At Cincinnati Reds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Astros AT Cincinnati Reds<\/strong>
\nMay 2, 2011 at 7:10 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 CIN -180 \/ HOU +160<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline: CIN -173 \/ HOU +163<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 8.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 8.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

SP:\u00a0 HOU- J.A. Happ \/ CIN- M. Leake<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Phillips is 4 of 5 lifetime against J.A. Happ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Reds haven’t been playing good baseball.\u00a0 They just dropped to 8-8 at home following their
\n9-5 loss to the Marlins on Sunday.\u00a0 The Reds began the season with the longest undefeated streak of 5 games but have won just 9 of the last 23 since that beginning.\u00a0 A good reason for that is poor pitching.\u00a0 The Reds’ starters have the worst ERA in the majors at 5.28, but in the 13-3 stretch against the Houston Astros, the ERA has been 2.86 while the offense has provided 98 runs.<\/p>\n

The offense has still been good for the Reds.\u00a0 They rank at or near the top in most major statistical categories, but were held to only 2 hits the last time Mike Leake started.\u00a0 Leake allowed only 2 runs and 7 hits over 7 innings, a “quality start,” as it is known.\u00a0 He had a bit of legal trouble regarding a shoplifting incident, but he has rebounded mentally from that and is pitching good games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe pitched better, actually,” Reds’ manager Dusty Baker said. \u201cThat\u2019s something he wanted to prove to us. Hopefully, he\u2019ll have some closure now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leake has been very good in his four career starts against the Astros.\u00a0 He has recorded 3 straight quality starts and his ERA is 2.49 over those 4 starts.\u00a0 If he does it again, he could solidify himself a permanent role in the Reds’ rotation, rather than being an injury fill-in as it is right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a plan,\u201d Baker told the Reds\u2019 official website. \u201cWe don\u2019t necessarily want to say or don\u2019t necessarily want them to know yet. We don\u2019t want them to get ahead of themselves. We want them to go out and pitch and do the best they can to win and go as far as they can go at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Astros may be without one of their best hitters in Carlos Lee who collided with Angel Sanchez in the outfield.\u00a0 He was taken to the hospital and stayed over night.\u00a0 He didn’t have any rib fractures but is still to undergo a CT scan.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to take all kinds of tests and we\u2019ll find out more,\u201d Astros manager Brad Mills said. \u201cWhen you have a collision like that, we\u2019re going to get everything checked out. It might feel like ribs on the surface, but it could be something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston pitcher J.A. Happ has struggled badly this season and has a 6.35 ERA with a\u00a0 1-4 record.\u00a0 His last start was not quality; he pitched 5 innings and allowed 5 hits and 2 runs, as the Astros lost 6-5 to the Cardinals.\u00a0 His PECOTA projection predicted a 10-9 record with a 4.35 ERA, so he is going to have to really turn it on to reach that goal.\u00a0 Brandon Phillips has hit 4 of 5 from Happ, including 2 home runs.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Houston is 6-15 SU in their last 21 road games and the total has gone OVER In 9 of Houston’s last 13 games on the road.\u00a0 The Astros are 7-18 SU in their last 25 against the Cincinnati Reds and the Astros are 3-13 SU in their last 16 road games against the Astros.<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER In 4 of Cincinnati’s last 6 games and the total has also gone OVER In 6 of their last 9 at home.\u00a0 The Reds are 2-6 SU in their last 8 home games and the Reds aer 18-7 SU in their last 25 against the Astros.\u00a0 The Reds are 13-3 SU in their last 16 home games against the Houston Astros.<\/p>\n

Given Happ’s struggles, it’s difficult to imagine Houston winning this game.\u00a0 Mike Leake has been pitching very well and has a good track record against the Reds, making it a pretty easy decision to wager on the Reds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston Astros AT Cincinnati Reds May 2, 2011 at 7:10 PM EST Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 CIN -180 \/ HOU +160 Current Moneyline: CIN -173 \/ HOU +163 Opening Total:\u00a0 8.5 Current Total:\u00a0 8.5 SP:\u00a0 HOU- J.A. Happ \/ CIN- M. Leake The Reds haven’t been playing good baseball.\u00a0 They just dropped to 8-8 at home following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":5038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[4905,78,1039,1049,1503],"class_list":["post-15243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-brandon-phillips","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-houston-astros","tag-j-a-happ","tag-mike-leake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15243","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=15243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15244,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15243\/revisions\/15244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}