Brewers aim to rebound vs. Giants

Baseball Betting Lines

07/06/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For Brewers shortstop Alcides Escobar, the All-Star break can't come soon enough.

The 23-year-old will try to shake off his third crucial error in two games this evening when Milwaukee hosts the San Francisco Giants for the second game of four straight at Miller Park.

Escobar made two errors that led to five unearned runs in Sunday's loss to the Cardinals, then booted a potential double-play ball with one out that helped key a four-run seventh frame for the Giants in last night's 6-1 setback.

"The key play was the ground ball where we thought we were going to get a double play and then we went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position," Brewers manager Ken Macha said. "I'm more frustrated then the fans are. The Giants put the ball in play with the bases loaded and we didn't."

Milwaukee managed just Rickie Weeks' bases-loaded walk in the second inning in losing for the second straight game and for the third time in four contests. Starter Dave Bush yielded just one run over six innings, but Kameron Loe was charged with four runs -- two earned -- while recording just one out in relief.

All-Star Corey Hart went 2-for-5 with a double in the loss, extending his hitting streak to 20 games. He is batting .360 (31-for-86) on the run with a pair of homers and 19 RBI.

Aubrey Huff followed Escobar's error, which allowed one run to score and kept the bases loaded, with a two-run bloop single and ended with three hits, while Buster Posey added a solo homer in just San Francisco's second win in 10 games. Jonathan Sanchez earned the win for yielding a run over six innings with six strikeouts.

"I feel good with the way I'm throwing right now," Sanchez said. "I was able to go deep into the game and give our bullpen a rest for the most part."

San Francisco will look to win back-to-back games for the first time since June 20-22 and send Madison Bumgarner to the hill tonight.

The 20-year-old is still searching for his first major league win after failing to post a decision in four games -- one start -- last season before losing his first two starts in 2010.

The left-hander, who has never faced Milwaukee, has notched consecutive seven- inning outings versus the Red Sox and Rockies, allowing seven earned runs. In Thursday's loss to Colorado, Bumgarner allowed four runs -- three earned -- on nine hits with five strikeouts.

The Brewers go with 33-year-old Randy Wolf, who picked up a victory over the Cardinals on Thursday. He allowed just a run on four hits over 6 1/3 innings of work, improving to 6-7 with a 4.70 earned run average this season.

The lefty is 8-4 with a 3.23 ERA in 16 career starts versus the Giants.

San Francisco, which split six games at Miller Park last year, has won four of its last five versus Milwaukee after dropping nine of 11 in the series.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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