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Atlanta starts this three-game series with a new first baseman in the fold, as Derek Lee joins the team and will face his former ball club out of the gate.\u00a0 Lee spent seven seasons in Chicago and hit .298 with 179 home runs and 574 RBI over that span.\u00a0 \u201cThe main thing is we\u2019ve got six weeks to go and Atlanta\u2019s in first place,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re playing great baseball.\u00a0 A chance to go to the postseason, it\u2019s hard to pass up.\u201d\u00a0 The Braves went 5-2 on its last homestand and now head off on a six game road trip.\u00a0 Atlanta is 27-33 on the road this season (-800) and the total stands at 29-28 O\/U in those contests.\u00a0 The team is also 10-9 as a road favorite of -125 to -150 (-180) in 2010 and 22-22 in this situation the last three years (-760).<\/p>\n
Braves starting pitcher Jair Jurrjens is 5-4 with a 3.92 ERA in 14 starts this season and has led the team to three straight victories.\u00a0 Over that span, he has allowed five runs (four earned) and 19 hits in 20.1 innings of work.\u00a0 The right-hander is 0-4 with a 6.39 ERA in seven road starts, issuing 12 walks and striking out 23 batters in 38 frames.\u00a0 In seven daytime starts, Jurrjens has compiled a 1-4 record and 6.13 ERA, while producing a perfect 4-0 mark and 1.88 ERA at night.\u00a0 In two lifetime outings versus the Cubs, he has posted an 0-1 record and 3.27 ERA, including allowing two runs (zero earned) and three hits over five frames.<\/p>\n
Chicago has lost 18 of 22 games and was outscored 20-9 by San Diego this week in a four-game sweep.\u00a0 The Cubs have also lost seven straight at home, which is their longest losing streak since 2006.\u00a0 The homestand against the Padres and Braves pits the club against division leaders that rank first and second in team ERA in all of baseball.\u00a0 San Diego heads out of town leading the majors with a 3.18 ERA while Atlanta enters with a 3.40 mark.\u00a0 Manager Lou Piniella\u2019s team is 5-13 in August (-590) and the total is 10-7 O\/U over that span.\u00a0 Chicago has also produced a dismal 3-9 mark as a home underdog of +100 to +125 in 2010 (-580) and 4-12 record over the last three years (-780).<\/p>\n
Cubs starting pitcher Ryan Dempster is 11-8 with a 3.62 ERA in 25 starts and is coming in on a three-game winning streak.\u00a0 In those outings, he has allowed nine runs (three earned) and 16 hits over 19.1 innings of work.\u00a0 The right-hander is 5-4 with a 3.43 ERA in 12 home starts, compiling 77 strikeouts in 81.1 frames.\u00a0 The veteran will be making his 13th daytime start, producing a 4-5 mark and 4.05 ERA, while giving up 12 long balls in 80 innings.\u00a0 In 27 appearances (16 starts) versus the Braves, Dempster brings a 2-11 record and 4.94 ERA.\u00a0 He will also get his first opportunity of facing his old teammate at Wrigley Field on Friday afternoon.\u00a0 \u201cI hope everybody in the stadium gives him a standing ovation for everything he\u2019s given in the past seven years he\u2019s been here,\u201d Dempster said.<\/p>\n
Bettors will notice that the Braves are 4-13 in Jurrjens last 17 starts versus the National League Central and the under is 12-2 in his last 14 starts against that particular division.\u00a0 \u00a0 Chicago isn\u2019t in much better shape, producing a 2-6 mark in Dempster\u2019s last eight starts against the National League East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Cubs will be facing off against a former teammate this afternoon in the first game of a three-game set at Wrigley Field. Atlanta Braves at Chicago Cubs Atlanta starts this three-game series with a new first baseman in the fold, as Derek Lee joins the team and will face his former ball club out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[243,180,2562,2150,1781,1653,982,1637],"class_list":["post-6429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-derek-lee","tag-jair-jurrjens","tag-nl-central","tag-nl-east","tag-ryan-dempster","tag-wrigley-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6429","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=6429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6430,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6429\/revisions\/6430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}