Cards hope Carpenter can slice into Reds' NL Central lead

Baseball Betting Lines

08/09/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cardinals trail the Reds by two games for first place in the National League Central. They have to feel good about their chances of cutting that deficit in half tonight with Chris Carpenter slated to pitch tonight's opener of a three-game series.

It's been exactly four years since Carpenter recorded something other than a win over Cincinnati and the St. Louis ace will look to extend an eight-start winning streak versus the club this evening at Great American Ball Park.

The 35-year-old Carpenter is 10-3 with a 1.96 earned run average in 16 career starts versus the Reds, winning all three starts against them this year while allowing just three runs over 21 innings. His personal winning streak over the club dates back to no-decision on Aug. 9, 2006, when he gave up six runs over seven innings of work.

Carpenter, who hasn't lost to the Reds since June 6 of that season, is 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA over his last five starts and is coming off a victory over Houston on Wednesday. The right-hander allowed just two runs, four hits and three walks over 7 1/3 innings, improving to 12-3 with a 2.91 ERA this season.

The Reds haven't seen Carpenter since he pitched the Cards to a 4-1 home victory on June 2, taking two of three in a series that left the two clubs tied for first place in the NL Central. The Reds have since recovered to retake the top spot, but have lost seven of 12 to the Cards this year, including a split of six games in Cincinnati.

"It's going to be exciting," Reds manager Dusty Baker told MLB.com of this upcoming series. "It's going to be fun and it's the next-to-last series where we know we can take care of our own business. It will be tough. This is what championship baseball is all about."

St. Louis and Cincinnati wrap their season series on Sept. 3-5.

Albert Pujols will try to extend his hot hitting tonight as he has homered in five of his last seven games. He is also hitting .472 (17-for-36) over his last eight contests with 11 RBI and is batting .381 in 12 games versus the Reds this year with three homers and 12 RBI.

Pujols didn't get a chance to swing the bat on Sunday as the finale of St. Louis' three-game set with Florida was postponed following a three hour and seven minute delay that came after four batters came to the plate in the first inning.

The Cardinals split the first two games of the series and went 5-3 on an eight-game homestand.

With St. Louis' postponement, Cincinnati was able to extend its lead in the standings with an 11-4 victory over Chicago, sweeping a three-game set while stretching its overall win streak to four games.

Jay Bruce was one of four Reds hitters to drive in two runs, with Joey Votto added a two-run homer, his 28th blast of the season. Travis Wood lost his no- hit bid in the sixth inning and allowed four runs -- three earned -- over 6 1/3 innings in getting the win.

The Reds, who have also won seven of eight, haven't won five in a row since June 21-26.

Rookie Mike Leake will start this opener for the Reds and is coming off consecutive road defeats, yielding 10 earned runs over 11 1/3 innings. He gave up seven runs -- six earned -- over five frames in a loss to Pittsburgh on Tuesday, falling to 7-3 with a 3.86 ERA on the season.

The 22-year-old righty faced the Cardinals for the first and only time on May 15 and picked up a home victory after giving up two runs over six innings.

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FOOTBALL BETTING LINES

NFL Football Sports Betting

Two playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count.

New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend.

His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates.

HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game.

The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup.

RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day.

First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08.

The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition.

These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years.

New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5.

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