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Chicago moved its record to 7-4 since the All-Star break after picking up a 5-2 win over the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.\u00a0 \u201cWith this offense we have and the pitching staff we have, we can do some damage,\u201d last night\u2019s starting pitcher Carlos Silva said.\u00a0 Monday\u2019s game was the first of a six-game, seven day road trip, as the club looks to win consecutive series against its own division for the first time since winning seven-straight series last season from July 24-September 13.\u00a0 The Cubs are 4-6 against the Astros this season despite outscoring by four runs, 51-47, in those contests.\u00a0 Chicago has dropped three games to Houston by a single run and another by two runs this season.\u00a0 Against divisional opponents, the team is 19-28 (-2,050) and the total being 19-24 O\/U in those meetings.<\/p>\n
Cubs starting pitcher Ted Lilly is 3-8 with a 3.88 ERA in 17 starts this season and is possibly auditioning for a new team as the trade deadline nears.\u00a0 \u201cThere is a lot of speculation and rumors that are thrown out there,\u201d Lilly said.\u00a0 \u201cFrom my experience, they don\u2019t necessarily mean something is going to happen.\u201d\u00a0 One thing that needs to happen is the offense needs to score runs for the left-hander, as the lineup is averaging a major league-low 2.43 runs when he\u2019s on the mound.\u00a0 He is 1-4 with a 3.27 ERA in seven road starts this season, striking out 31 batters and issuing just 11 walks in 44 innings.\u00a0 In 11 career starts against the Astros, Lilly is a dominating 7-1 with a 2.36 ERA.\u00a0 He faced them in his last start at Wrigley Field, allowing just a single run and seven hits over 7.1 frames.<\/p>\n
Houston\u2019s offense continues to struggle during the 2010 season, leaving 12 runners on base and going 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position in last night\u2019s loss.\u00a0 \u201cWe had a lot of opportunities we didn\u2019t capitalize on,\u201d said first baseman Lance Berkman.\u00a0 \u201cI think that pretty much was the story.\u201d\u00a0 The Astros are averaging just 3.6 runs per game and hitting for a .239 average as a team this season.\u00a0 After posting a 17-34 record through May 31, the club is actually just two games under .500 since June 1 (23-25).\u00a0 The starting rotation has been solid over the last 21 games, posting a 2.80 ERA, with the Astros going 10-11 over that span.\u00a0 Houston is 23-20 against division opponents this season (+1,040) and the total is 17-23 O\/U in those contests.<\/p>\n
Astros starting pitcher Brett Myers is 7-6 with a 3.24 ERA in 20 starts this season and the team has won his last three starts.\u00a0 Among those last three outings, the team picked up a 4-3 road victory over tonight\u2019s opponent in his last start.\u00a0 He allowed just a single run and five hits over seven innings in that contest.\u00a0 The right-hander is a perfect 5-0 with a 2.48 ERA in nine home starts, surrendering just two home runs in 61.2 innings.\u00a0 In 15 career appearances (11 starts) against the Cubs, Myers is 8-3 with a 2.52 ERA.\u00a0 His 8-3 mark against tonight\u2019s opponent is his second-best record versus any club (7-0 versus Colorado).<\/p>\n
Bettors may have a great opportunity in playing the home underdog in this contest, with the Cubs being 1-5 in Lilly\u2019s last five starts as a road favorite.\u00a0 The play gains a great deal in strength knowing the Astros are 8-0 in Myers\u2019 last eight home starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Astros are the best home underdog betting opportunity on Tuesday’s MLB card. Chicago Cubs at Houston Astros Chicago moved its record to 7-4 since the All-Star break after picking up a 5-2 win over the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.\u00a0 \u201cWith this offense we have and the pitching staff we have, we can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[2297,180,1039,2336,1982,1823],"class_list":["post-5871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-brett-myers","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-houston-astros","tag-lance-berkman","tag-minute-maid-park","tag-ted-lilly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5871","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=5871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5872,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5871\/revisions\/5872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}