Cards send Wainwright to hill vs. Dodgers

Baseball Betting Lines

07/17/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Adam Wainwright will try to become just the second 14-game winner in the major leagues and remain perfect at home when he leads the St. Louis Cardinals into the third test of a four-game series tonight versus the Los Angeles Dodgers at Busch Stadium.

Colorado Rockies ace and All-Star starter Ubaldo Jimenez leads the big leagues with 15 wins, while Wainwright is second with a 13-5 record and 2.11 earned run average in 19 starts. Wainwright is an All-Star himself and has won three straight and seven of his last nine starts, including an 8-0 win at Houston on July 9. He fired eight scoreless innings and struck out four batters.

The right-hander is 9-0 with a 1.43 ERA in nine home starts and may run into some trouble today versus a Dodgers club that beat him back on June 9 at Chavez Ravine. Wainwright allowed four runs and eight hits in six innings of a 4-3 setback, falling to 2-3 in nine career games (6 starts) against LA.

St. Louis has won three in a row and the first two portions of this series, including Friday's 8-4 triumph behind a two-run homer and four RBI from Yadier Molina. Randy Winn drove in a pair of runs and Felipe Lopez ended 2-for-5 with an RBI for the Cardinals, who are still a half-game behind Cincinnati for the top spot in the NL Central.

"We've done a good job of getting the count in our favor and when the ball's in the strike zone we've been aggressive with it," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "We've done a good job of forcing near the middle of the plate and getting good hacks."

Jaime Garcia started for La Russa's club and did not record a decision after giving up two runs and eight hits in 3 1/3 innings. Kyle McClellan earned the win with 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief.

The Cardinals will also host Philadelphia for four games after this set.

Los Angeles has lost two straight and three of four games, and sits tied with San Francisco at 3 1/2 games off the NL West lead. In last night's loss to the Cards, Chad Billingsley was roughed up for seven runs and 10 hits in four innings to absorb the loss.

"They put the ball in play, found holes and made things happen," Billingsley said. "It was one of those days."

James Loney had three hits and an RBI, while Rafael Furcal and Matt Kemp both finished with two hits and knocked in a run for LA. Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez left the game in the first inning because of a calf injury and is listed as day-to-day. Ramirez was just activated from the 15-day disabled list this week due to a hamstring ailment.

Meanwhile, Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda has been struggling for a while and will take the mound Saturday at Busch Stadium. Kuroda is 2-6 with a 4.96 earned run average in his last nine starts and has lost back-to-back trips to the mound.

In a 4-0 loss to Florida on July 7, Kuroda was pounded for four runs and six hits in seven innings, while striking out four batters. The loss evened Kuroda's mark at 7-7 in 17 starts this season and raised his ERA to 3.87.

The Japanese right-hander, who is 4-4 in eight road starts this season, did not factor into the outcome of a 1-0 win over St. Louis on June 8. Kuroda delivered seven shutout frames and six K's for the no-decision that day and is 0-0 with a 1.38 ERA in two career starts in this series.

The Dodgers swept a three-game set at home versus the Cardinals from June 7-9 after losing five of seven to the club last season.

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Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

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