Cards hope for boost from Carpenter in battle with Bucs
Baseball Betting Lines
07/30/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - St. Louis' bats have failed the Cardinals on more than one occasion over the club's current funk. With Chris Carpenter set to take the hill tonight versus Pittsburgh, those struggles might be forgiven tonight.
Carpenter will try to win his 11th straight decision over the Pirates when the Cardinals kick-start a three-game set versus their division rival tonight at Busch Stadium.
The 35-year-old Carpenter is 11-1 with a 2.29 earned run average in his career versus the Pirates, winning 10 decisions in a row since his lone loss to the club way back on June 29, 2004. He did not factor into the decision of his lone meeting with Pittsburgh this year, a May 7 outing in which Carpenter allowed two runs over seven innings.
The right-hander is 11-3 with a 3.09 ERA overall this year and had won two straight starts before a no-decision versus the Cubs on Sunday. Carpenter allowed three runs on nine hits over seven innings of his club's extra-inning victory.
St. Louis might need its former Cy Young Award winner to be on point tonight. Since winning eight in a row from July 11-21, the Cardinals have lost five of seven and have been shut out in three of those games.
That includes yesterday's result versus the Mets. New York knuckleballer R.A. Dickey held the Cards to just four hits over 8 1/3 innings en route to handing St. Louis a 4-0 setback.
"This is different. You're not used to facing knuckleballers," said Jon Jay, who had St. Louis' lone extra-base hit with a double. "We all check out film and talk about it and stuff, but [Dickey] was on today and did a really good job."
Ryan Ludwick, Skip Schumaker and Colby Rasmus all singled for the Cardinals, who are a half-game back of Cincinnati for first place in the National League Central. Starter Blake Hawksworth went six innings, allowing four runs on seven hits.
Looking to keep St. Louis' offense in check will be Jeff Karstens, who hasn't won since June 19. The right-hander is 0-4 with a 4.72 ERA in six starts since and has dropped each of his last three outings.
Karstens has gotten just six runs of support over his three-start slide, but allowed four runs -- two earned -- on seven hits over six innings of a 9-2 setback to the Padres on Saturday. He fell to 2-6 with a 4.72 ERA on the season.
The 27-year-old has a solid 2.25 ERA and 1-1 mark in two career starts against St. Louis, which he beat on May 8 with six shutout frames in a 2-0 triumph.
Pittsburgh failed to record a three-game sweep of Colorado on Thursday, falling 9-3 in the finale. Neil Walker had a two-run homer, but Bucs starter Paul Maholm gave up eight runs and 11 hits over 5 1/3 innings.
"I just didn't do a good job in the fourth [inning] when they got their four runs," said Maholm. "They didn't take big swings, they just put the ball in play, got runners over and I wasn't able to make the pitches."
Outfielder Andrew McCutchen is day-to-day for Pittsburgh after getting scratched from Thursday's lineup due to a sore right shoulder. McCutchen missed six games with the ailment last week and aggravated it on Wednesday.
The Cardinals took two of three in Pittsburgh when the clubs met for the first time back from May 7-9. St. Louis won 10 of the 15 meetings a season ago.
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Teams that should be in: Stanford
Oregon and USC get their tickets punched after taking care of business this weekend. Yes, the Trojans' computer numbers aren't great, but there's no way the third-place team in this league is getting nixed. Grudgingly, I added Arizona after consultation with our Bracketologist. I don't know that Arizona will lose its last three (including a Pac-10 quarterfinal game), and even if the Cats do, I still can't see how they'd be left out, given the overall profile. That said, it bears watching, as three more L's would leave them at 18-12 (9-9) and on a 6-11 skid entering the Dance. It would be nice to see the Wildcats get at least one W in the Bay Area next week, as Cincinnati (albeit without Armein Kirkland and with a worse profile) was axed after a similar slide last season. I just couldn't rationalize having some of the other teams as locks and not having Arizona in that category -- there just aren't enough good teams behind the Cats to threaten their spot, it seems. Stanford has its fate in its own hands with the Arizona schools coming to the Farm to close out the regular season next weekend.
Should be in:
Stanford [17-10 (9-7), RPI: 40, SOS: 21] No shame in not getting a win in L.A., but that makes the home game against Arizona State a must-win ahead of what could be an intriguing meeting with Arizona should the Cats lose at Cal. Getting to 11 Pac-10 wins would make Selection Sunday much more comfortable, but 10's probably more than enough this season. The Cardinal have nonconference wins over Texas Tech and at Virginia to lean on, although they also lost badly to Air Force and Santa Clara at home.
| Southeastern Conference odds | |
Work left to do: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Mississippi State It looks more and more possible that no one from the SEC West will make the NCAAs. How weird is that? Tennessee and Vandy move into the locks category after more good work this weekend. Kentucky stays there, although it would be smart for the Cats to handle Georgia at home Wednesday ahead of a trip to the Swamp. Could a disaster scenario (two more L's and a first-round SEC tourney exit) somehow dislodge the Cats despite their incredible computer numbers? Still unlikely, but not worth chancing it.
Work left to do: Alabama [19-9 (6-8), RPI: 43, SOS: 47] The tough L at Tennessee was understandable, and even created some hope. Unfortunately, that hope was dashed by a home loss to Auburn, which leaves the Tide in some real trouble. There's still no signature win on the profile (no, Kentucky doesn't count), and the computer profile is weakening rapidly. The Tide conceivably could beat Ole Miss and win at Miss. State to get to 8-8 and clinch at least a share of the West crown, but that's probably not enough right now. The Tide will need to do some work in the SEC tourney. Georgia [16-10 (8-6), RPI: 52, SOS: 23] This is the team with the best chance to make it from this section right now. The Bulldogs rebounded from a terrible performance at Ole Miss to beat down Miss. State. Now they are at Kentucky (king of the RPI 51-100 win) and home to Tennessee. That would be worth a lot of computer points to get both (which is doable), as both teams are in the top 11 in RPI. Finishing at least 9-7 is an absolute must, and I would feel much better about the Dawgs' chances if they got both to get to 10 SEC wins. They also beat Gonzaga, but lost to ACC bubblers Georgia Tech and Clemson. Mississippi [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 63, SOS: 79] Like everyone else in this division, Ole Miss gacked up a chance to stake a claim, losing by double figures at South Carolina. Even 9-7 likely is not nearly enough with a nonconference profile devoid of anything notable. Mississippi State [16-11 (7-7), RPI: 66, SOS: 37] With a chance to get in the mix, these Bulldogs were leashed by their Georgia counterparts. Could they get to 9-7? I guess -- although winning at Arkansas, then beating Alabama is no lock -- but would that mean all that much for a team with this overall profile? Probably not. There's nothing of note (on the good side) in the nonconference profile. |
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