Cardinals send Pineiro to hill in Cincinnati

Baseball Betting Lines

07/03/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Joel Pineiro hopes for some run support tonight when the St. Louis Cardinals begin a three-game set with the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.

Pineiro lost for the ninth time in his last 11 starts on Sunday against the Minnesota Twins, as he allowed five runs (three earned) and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings, dropping him to 6-9 on the year to go along with a 3.44 earned run average.

Over the past two months, though, St. Louis has provided Pineiro with an abysmal 2.34 runs-per-start. His nine losses lead the majors.

Pineiro lost to the Reds earlier in the year and is 3-1 with a 2.97 ERA in five starts against them.

St. Louis, meanwhile, enters tonight's tilt on a high note after winning the final two games of its four-game set with the San Francisco Giants. The Cardinals managed to even the series on Thursday, as Todd Wellemeyer threw 7 1/3 innings to help St. Louis to a 5-2 win.

Wellemeyer (7-7) scattered seven hits and two runs with a walk and six strikeouts for the Cardinals, who had lost six of seven before the two wins.

"Just one consistent delivery to where the ball looked the same," Wellemeyer said of his key to success. "Every pitch looks the same out of your hand, every delivery looks the same. That's how you get them off-balance."

Cincinnati also comes in on a two-game winning streak after Joey Votto's single to left in the bottom of the 10th on Thursday scored Chris Dickerson and gave the Reds a 3-2 win over Arizona.

Votto totaled four hits in all while Dickerson was 2-for-4 with an RBI single of his own as Cincinnati won for the fifth time in seven games.

"Obviously we want to take some sort of momentum going into this Cardinals series this weekend," said Votto. "I think losing today, especially to have not scored a lot of runs and to have disappointed Aaron (Harang) today, would not have been a good thing going into this weekend."

Aaron Harang pitched well, yielding just four hits and two runs over seven full frames. The right-hander, who remains without a win over his last seven starts, walked three and struck out eight. Francisco Cordero (1-2) received the win for pitching a scoreless top half of the 10th.

Cincinnati, tonight, turns to 23-year-old righty Homer Bailey, who will be making his third start of the season, but is coming off his first win of the year. Bailey defeated the Cleveland Indians on Saturday, surrendering three runs and three hits in five innings to lower his ERA to a still-lofty 8.68.

Bailey, though, has been awful in his two starts against the Cardinals, losing both contests, while giving up 12 runs in just 7 1/3 innings of those contests.

Cincinnati has won four of its seven meetings with the Cards this season.

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Football Betting

NFL Football Betting Online

The San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.

Thursday, August 21

NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37

NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road

In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.

Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):

* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games

Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.

Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.

Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.

That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.

Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.

CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

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