Cardinals continue playoff push in Houston

Baseball Betting Lines

09/26/2011 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With a few more wins and some help from the Phillies, the St. Louis Cardinals can wrap up their eighth playoff appearance since the turn of the century.

The Cardinals must take care of their own business, however, starting with tonight's opener of a three-game series against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. They are only one game behind Atlanta for the top spot in the NL Wild Card standings and hope the Phillies can wipe the Braves out at Turner Field in their three-game series.

St. Louis has won two straight and 14 of its last 18 games, and put the heat on Atlanta with Sunday's 3-2 win over the Chicago Cubs in the finale of a three-game set at Busch Stadium. Rafael Furcal and Yadier Molina both homered and finished with two hits, while Edwin Jackson threw seven innings of two-run ball in the no-decision. Octavio Dotel got the final two outs in the eighth for the win and Jason Motte struck out two in the ninth for his ninth save to keep the Cards in contention.

"That's the fun of it," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said of scoreboard watching. "They just can't get distracted. We all were, that's part of the fun."

Jaime Garcia draws the start for La Russa's club tonight and he sports a 13-7 mark with a 3.45 earned run average in 31 starts. Garcia is 3-0 in his previous four starts and gave up four unearned runs over 7 2/3 innings in Wednesday's 6-5 win over the Mets.

Garcia, a left-hander, hasn't had much success against the Astros in his career, going 0-3 with a 5.91 ERA in four starts. Houston beat Garcia on July 28 in a 5-3 triumph at Busch Stadium and reached him for five runs -- four earned -- in six innings.

Houston is only three games away from closing out one of the worst seasons in team history and has dropped seven of its last 11 games. It recorded a split of a four-game series versus Colorado and suffered an embarrassing 19-3 loss to the Rockies on Sunday afternoon.

Lucas Harrell was dealt the loss and allowed five runs, three of which were earned, and seven hits in three innings. Aneury Rodriguez gave up four runs in two innings of relief and both Lance Pendleton and Xavier Cedeno were touched for five runs.

"Luke got himself in trouble in that second inning when he didn't get an out on that comebacker. I think it really wasn't a double-play ball, but he tried to make it a double-play ball and the ball got away and we didn't get an out," Astros manager Brad Mills said when he commented on the Harrell error in the second inning.

The Rockies had a 25-7 advantage in hits, while Chris Johnson finished with two hits and an RBI to highlight Houston's dreadful offense.

Wandy Rodriguez gets the start for the 'Stros Monday night and he is 11-11 with a 3.51 ERA in 29 starts this season. He lost his most recent outing on Wednesday in a 2-0 loss at Cincinnati, as he yielded a pair of runs in seven innings of work. The lefty had won four of his past six decisions.

Rodriguez has faced the Cardinals 19 times in his career (18 starts), going 6-11 with a 3.85 ERA in that stretch. He defeated the Cardinals the only time he faced them this season on July 28 in the Gateway City.

St. Louis has won eight of 12 matchups with Houston this season.

Gamblong Baseball Betting News

<< Red Sox turn to Beckett for big series with O's
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Red Sox turn to Josh Beckett to keep their fleeting postseason hopes alive this evening when they open a three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. Boston didn't help itself in the wild card r

<< Twins hand Slowey ball against Royals
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Right-hander Kevin Slowey gets a final chance at his first win of the season tonight, when the Minnesota Twins play the Kansas City Royals in the opener of a three-game, season-ending series at Target Field. A 13-g

<< Fister takes the hill for Tigers against Indians
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Doug Fister makes his final start this season before the playoffs when the American League Central champion Detroit Tigers open a three-game set with the Cleveland Indians at Comerica Park. Fister may have been the best ac

<< European Tour announces early 2012 docket
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The European Tour announced the early portion of its 2012 schedule on Monday with the events through June. The 2012 schedule will start in January, which is a change after the last several season

<< Yankees commence set with Rays at the Trop
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Yankees almost delivered the death knell to the Boston Red Sox' playoff chances this weekend. This week they hope to do the same to the Tampa Bay Rays when the American League East rivals close out th

Sneijder could face extended spell on sidelines >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New Inter Milan manager Claudio Ranieri believes midfielder Wesley Sneijder could be facing an extended spell on the sidelines because of a thigh injury. The 27-year-old missed out on Inter's 3-1 w

Injuries pile up for United ahead of Basel clash >>
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will be facing a number of injury issues ahead of his team's Champions League match with FC Basel at Old Trafford on Tuesday. Strikers Wayne R

UAE's Awana killed in car crash >>
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - United Arab Emirates midfielder Theyab Awana was killed in a car crash while traveling back from training on Sunday, it was confirmed by the country's football federation. The 21-

Irsay: Manning likely won't play in 2011 >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said Monday that superstar quarterback Peyton Manning likely won't play this season because of his lingering neck issue, then clarified his earlier comments with a more

Sharapova wins Tokyo opener >>
Tokyo, Japan (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wimbledon runner-up Maria Sharapova was a second-round winner Monday at the $2.05 million Toray Pan Pacific Open. The second-seeded Sharapova, who received a bye into the second round, handled Thai veter

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.

You can find these lines and all of the NFL betting lines , so be sure to login and get your wagers down before kickoff!

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines .
To visit this sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sports betting