Skidding Cardinals aim to rebound against Astros

Baseball Betting Lines

08/30/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals will begin the last leg of what has been a disappointing road trip tonight, when they take on the Houston Astros in the first of three straight games from Minute Maid Park.

The Cardinals have lost 10 of their last 14 contests to fall five games behind Cincinnati for the NL Central lead and three games off the pace in the wild card standings. They lost three of four matchups in Washington and dropped a 4-2 decision Sunday even with stud right-hander Adam Wainwright on the mound.

Wainwright suffered his third straight loss, permitting all four runs and six hits in five innings.

Pedro Feliz homered and both Matt Holliday and Yadier Molina posted two hits for the punchless Cardinals, who are 2-5 on this 10-game road trip.

"It was not a good offensive game for us," said St. Louis manager Tony La Russa. "We didn't put anything together and we're better than that."

St. Louis will send Jake Westbrook to the mound Monday and it hasn't been scoring much runs for him either. In a 5-2 loss last Wednesday at Pittsburgh, Westbrook allowed four runs and six hits in six innings to fall to 1-2 with a 4.06 ERA in five starts with his new club.

Westbrook, a right-hander, threw six innings of two-run ball versus the Astros in a no-decision on August 2 and is 0-1 in two career starts against them.

Houston lost two of three matchups with the New York Mets over the weekend and is coming off yesterday's 5-1 loss in which starter Bud Norris gave up five runs on eight hits and three walks over 5 2/3 innings.

Michael Bourn had the lone RBI off of Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, while Tommy Manzella, Geoff Blum and Jason Castro collected two hits apiece for the Astros, who lost for just the second time in their previous eight games. The 'Stros entered the New York series riding a five-game winning streak.

"The one thing about knuckleball pitchers is you really never know," Astros manager Brad Mills said. "You can beat them up one day and they can come back and still get to you and vice versa. With him (Dickey) this year he's been consistent."

J.A. Happ will make his seventh start with Houston tonight and defeated his former team, the Phillies, last Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park. Acquired from Philadelphia as part of the Roy Oswalt deal, Happ held the Phillies to a pair of runs in 6 1/3 innings to push his Houston mark to 3-2 with a 4.26 ERA.

The young left-hander will shoot for a measure of revenge tonight against the Cardinals, who pounded Happ for seven runs in one inning back on August 4. Happ is just 0-2 with a 9.45 ERA in three career starts against St. Louis.

Houston has won seven of 12 meetings with the Cardinals this season.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.