Astros starting pitcher Brett Myers is 7-6 with a 3.35 ERA in 19 starts this season (+280) and is coming in with a two-game winning streak.\u00a0 Over those two starts, he has allowed three earned runs and 10 hits over 15.2 innings against the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates.\u00a0 The right-hander has a losing 2-6 mark and 4.14 ERA in 10 road starts, as he\u2019s allowed nine home runs in 67.1 frames.\u00a0 In 14 career appearances (10 starts) versus the Cubs, Myers has tallied a brilliant 8-3 record and 2.63 ERA.\u00a0 He is 2-1 with a 3.72 ERA in six daytime starts this year, as hitters have combined for a .303 average.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Chicago is looking to win its second consecutive series after picking up a 14-7 blowout victory over the Houston Astros at Wrigley Field on Tuesday.\u00a0 The club remains 10.5 games back of the first-place St. Louis Cardinals, but manager Lou Piniella is keeping the faith.\u00a0 \u201cI want to win as many games as we can to get back in this pennant race,\u201d he said.\u00a0 Piniella announced on Monday that the 2010 season would be his last in Chicago.\u00a0 \u00a0 The club is 9-6 in its last 15 games after dropping eight of their previous 11 contests.\u00a0 Entering today\u2019s game, the Cubs have a 16-26 record against the NL Central (-2,070), which is the third-lowest mark for any NL club within its own division.\u00a0 That\u2019s a big drop off from the team posting a 322-254 record against divisional foes from 2003-09.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Cubs starter Ted Lilly is 3-8 with a 4.07 ERA in 16 starts this season (-390), with the team dropping two of his last three starts.\u00a0 In those three starts, the left-hander has allowed 19 runs (17 earned) and 22 hits over 17.1 innings of work.\u00a0 He did lead the Cubs to a 4-3 home victory over the Philadelphia Phillies last time out, surrendering three runs and four hits over seven frames.\u00a0 In 10 career starts against the Astros, Lilly has produced a fantastic 7-1 record and 2.49 ERA, with an .197 batting average against.\u00a0 He is winless in seven daytime starts, posting an 0-3 record and 5.73 ERA, with much of the damage stemming from 11 home runs in 44 innings.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Bettors will not find comfort in playing the Astros with a 10-11 mark against left-handed starters this year (+80) and 53-52 record the last three seasons (+960).\u00a0 The home team is no better in facing the opposing pitcher, starting today\u2019s action with a 27-35 record against right-handed starters (-1,320).<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The three-game series is up for grabs, as both teams look to dig themselves out of a large hole in the NL Central race. Houston Astros at Chicago Cubs Houston is set to play its final game of a six-game road trip against the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates, with the team posting a 12-5 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[2297,180,1039,340,1781,1823],"class_list":["post-5780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-brett-myers","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-houston-astros","tag-lou-piniella","tag-nl-central","tag-ted-lilly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5780","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\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5780"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5782,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5780\/revisions\/5782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/ted-lilly-cubs-930-150x150.jpg\")
Houston is set to play its final game of a six-game road trip against the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates, with the team posting a 12-5 combined mark against those two opponents this season.\u00a0 The Astros are 14-11 versus NL clubs since June 7, winning four of seven series over that span.\u00a0 Unlike today\u2019s opponent, Houston has had success against the division, tallying a 21-17 record (+1,060).\u00a0 The club is 13-18 in day games this season (+10) and 60-63 over the last three years, with the team averaging 3.5 runs and combining for a dismal .229 average under the sun.\u00a0 Houston has thrived in playing during the middle of the week, tallying an 11-3 mark when playing on Wednesday (+1,020).<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n