Cubs try to keep momentum going as Padres pay visit

Baseball Betting Lines

05/12/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Cubs enter a four-game set with a chip on their shoulders, as they are coming off an impressive sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Tonight, the club will welcome the San Diego Padres to town for the series opener at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs opened their 10-game homestand in red-hot fashion, outscoring the Diamondbacks 16-7 over the weekend. In Sunday's 6-4 victory in the series finale, Daryle Ward's two-run pinch-hit double in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted Chicago to victory after the start of game was delayed for 58 minutes due to rain.

Reed Johnson hit a two-run homer for the Cubs, winners in four of their last five games overall. Derrek Lee also went deep in the win, while Kosuke Fukudome finished 2-for-4 and scored a run.

Carlos Marmol earned the win as four Chicago relievers combined for 4 2/3 shutout innings. Kerry Wood picked up his seventh save with a scoreless ninth.

Sean Gallagher lasted 4 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on five hits for the Cubs, who will also host the Pittsburgh Pirates for three games in the Windy City on this homestand.

Carlos Zambrano, whose scheduled start on Sunday was pushed back because of weather conditions, gets the call for Chicago this evening. Zambrano is 5-1 with a 1.80 earned run average in eight starts this season, and 4-0 over his past five trips to the mound.

Zambrano is coming off his best performance of the season, in which he hurled a season-high eight shutout innings of three-hit ball during a 3-0 win at Cincinnati on Tuesday.

The fiery right-hander, who is 3-0 in five home starts in 2008, owns a 4-1 record and a 1.94 ERA in seven career outings versus San Diego.

Taking the hill for the Padres on Monday will be Randy Wolf. Wolf is 2-2 with a 4.14 earned run average in seven starts in 2008, but is 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA over his last three starts.

Wolf pitched on Wednesday in a 5-2 loss at Atlanta and was shelled for five runs and eight hits in six frames. The left-hander is 2-5 with a 4.35 ERA in 12 career games against the Cubs.

San Diego just won the last two games of a three-game series from the Colorado Rockies after losing five in a row. It posted a 6-1 triumph in Sunday's series finale, as Khalil Greene belted a two-run home run and Tadahito Iguchi added three hits with a run scored and an RBI.

Scott Hairston had a solo home run and Kevin Kouzmanoff chipped in a pair of hits and an RBI for San Diego. Padres starter Chris Young got the win after he went six innings and allowed only one run on five hits.

The Padres will open a seven-game road trip tonight in Chicago. They went 5-3 against the Cubs last season, with a 3-2 mark at Wrigley Field, and are 12-3 over the previous 15 matchups in this series.

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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.