First-place Padres continue trek with trip to Chicago

Baseball Betting Lines

08/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After winning a tough series against their division rivals over the weekend, the National League West-leading San Diego Padres will resume a 10-game road trip tonight with the first of four straight games against the Chicago Cubs from Wrigley Field.

San Diego just won two of three matchups in San Francisco to push its lead atop the division standings to 3 1/2 games ahead of the Giants. In Sunday's 8-2 victory at AT&T Park, Wade LeBlanc limited the hosts to a pair of runs and four hits in seven innings for the win, while both Joe Thatcher and Ernesto Frieri tossed a scoreless inning of relief.

Yorvit Torrealba homered and Miguel Tejada ended 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored for San Diego, which has won six of its last seven games and outhit the Giants by an 11-4 margin.

"Before we came here, we told each other that no matter what happens in this series we still have to keep playing good ball," Tejada said on the team's website. "We're going to keep playing the way we're playing."

The Padres will also visit Milwaukee for three games on this trek and are slated to send Kevin Correia to the mound on Monday. Correia has won two straight and four of his last five starts. and is coming off last Wednesday's 8-5 win over Pittsburgh in which he gave up four runs over 6 1/3 innings with seven K's. The right-hander improved to 9-7 to go along with a 4.86 ERA in 22 starts.

Correia is still searching for his first career win over the Cubs, as evidenced by his 0-2 record and 7.50 ERA in seven games (3 starts). He's 4-2 in nine starts away from the Petco Park mound this season.

Chicago just completed a seven-game road trip through San Francisco and St. Louis with a 3-4 mark and won the last two portions of a three-game set against the Cardinals over the weekend.

The Cubs, who will now begin a seven-game homestand versus the Padres and Braves, recorded a 9-7 win in yesterday's series finale in St. Louis. Derrek Lee homered twice and Koyie Hill knocked in a pair of runs for the Cubs, who posted six runs in the fourth inning and won for only the fourth time in the past 18 tries.

Chicago starter Ryan Dempster lasted 6 2/3 innings and yielded two runs on five hits. He also struck out six and walked two to improve to 7-7 over 44 career appearances (18 starts) against St. Louis.

"To be able to come away with a 'W', it was nice," Dempster said. "It was a good series, it was a good road trip for us. We went 1-3 in San Francisco and had a chance to win every single game, and we came here and won two of three against a really tough team."

Marcos Mateo was roughed up for four runs in two-thirds of an inning in relief of Dempster, but Carlos Marmol got the final two outs of the game for his 21st save.

Tom Gorzelanny draws the start for the Cubs in Monday's series opener with San Diego and is 0-1 with a 5.59 earned run average in his last three starts -- all Chicago losses -- since a personal four-game win streak. Gorzelanny did not figure into the decision of last Wednesday's 5-4 loss at San Francisco, as he was reached for four runs and eight hits in six innings to remain at 6-6 in 23 games (17 starts) in 2010.

Gorzelanny, a left-hander, will face San Diego for the fourth time in his career tonight and is 1-2 with a 4.24 ERA over the previous three starts.

The Padres and Cubs are meeting for the first time since San Diego took five of nine matchups a year ago. San Diego, however, was swept in three games at Wrigley Field from May 12-14, 2009 and is winless in its past five visits to the Windy City.

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MySportsbook.com and Kentucky Derby Offer Bonuses
The 2008 Kentucky Derby has announced a $1-million bonus for this weekend’s 134th ‘Run for the Roses’ and MySportsbook.com is doing the same.

Well, not quite $1 million, but MySportsbook.com is offering a 75% rebate for Kentucky Derby lines. Check out the exclusive horse racing bonus for all the details.

According to MySportsbook.com, the favorites for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky are: Curlin (+250); Street Sense (+500); Scat Daddy (+700); Circular Quay (+750); and Nobiz Like Shobiz (+800).

Derby organizers announced this week that there will be a $1-million bonus at the 2007 Kentucky Derby odds if the first-place horse wins by more than 6 1/2 lengths – the margin of Barbaro's victory last year. The bonus would be divided Saturday among the winning trainer, jockey, owner and a charity, with each receiving 25 percent. The designated charity is the Barbaro Memorial Fund.

''It's certainly creative, it's certainly fun and it has something for the horsemen, which we always want to embrace,'' Churchill Downs president and chief executive Robert Evans said at a news conference. ''What's really cool is it will force us to remember Barbaro.''
    
Meanwhile, the Derby favorite – Curlin – is going against the odds this year. It's been 125 years since Apollo won after skipping his 2-year-old season, and not since Regret in 1915 has such a lightly seasoned horse worn the blanket of red roses.

Arkansas Derby winner Curlin – unbeaten in three career races – tries to overcome both those obstacles in Saturday's 133rd Derby.

''We're not running against history,'' trainer Steve Asmussen said Monday. ''We're running against who they load up.''

Six other horses have run in the Derby without benefit of 2-year-old races and with three or fewer starts. The best any of them managed was a sixth-place finish by Showing Up last year.
   
Asmussen dismissed suggestions that Curlin's lack of racing experience could keep him from the winner's circle.

”He exudes confidence and he's got a great presence about him,'' the trainer said. ''I feel great about the position we're in. He's not worried about anything, why should you be?''
   
The Kentucky Derby is at 4:04 p.m., ET Saturday.

For complete odds on the Kentucky Derby, visit MySportsbook.com. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.