MLB odds Favor Rockies to Earn Series Split with Astros
Don't look now but the Astros are upsetting the baseball betting odds with seven wins in June already. Houston and Colorado finish their series today at Coors Field.
It hasn't happened often over the course of Roy Oswalt's 10 year baseball career. But considering how poorly the Astros have performed when Oswalt starts these days and the club's 9-16 road mark, it's little wonder he is the underdog in Thursday's getaway contest at Colorado.
MLB odds released Wednesday afternoon made Jhoulys Chacin (3-4, 3.77) and the Rockies the 125-130 favorites against Oswalt (4-8, 3.22) and the Astros. The total opened at nine and has stuck.
The Rockies will be trying to earn a series split after starting the four-game set with a victory. Jason Hammels pitched the Rocks past the 'Stros in Monday's series opener, 5-1, with Colorado big 180 chalk at the close. The Rockies were even bigger favorites in Tuesday's contest, minus 250 at several shops, but couldn't hold a lead in a 4-3 loss to Houston.
Wednesday's contest needed in extra inning to complete and Carlos Lee's grand slam won it for the Astros, 6-2. The 10th-inning blast was Lee's second consecutive game-winning hit and third time this season he has won a game for Houston with a home run in the final inning.
The final score marked the third straight 'under' in this series, leaving the Astros 34-23-3 to the low side this season and Colorado even stronger to the 'under' at 35-22-2.
Chacin's hot start to his rookie season has cooled a bit though nothing that an assignment against the punchless Astros can't help. The right-hander is still adjusting to major league hitters and to pitching at Coors where his ERA is about 2.5 runs higher than his overall mark. A lot of that damage came in one particularly bad start against the Nats in mid-May.
The Astros have no business looking ahead on their schedule, but one can't help but think at least a few of them will be thinking about playing in the Bronx on Friday against former Houston pitcher Andy Pettitte.
This will be Chacin's first career appearance versus Houston. More times than not the Astros have been stymied when facing a hurler for the first time.
Oswalt, on the other hand, will be making his 12th career start against Colorado and has pitched very well in his previous four outings at Coors. Houston is 8-3 in the right-hander's career assignments versus the Rockies, and 3-1 when he starts in Denver where his career ERA is 2.17.
It will be just the fourth start of 2010 for Oswalt away from Houston, and he's been outstanding in the previous three. Houston is 2-1 in those three road assignments, the only loss a 2-1 defeat in San Fran against Tim Lincecum on May 15. Oswalt allowed both Giants runs, the only runs he's surrendered outside of the Bayou City limits this year.
Tim Timmons completes the umpire circuit in this series with plate duty on Thursday. His 14 previous games calling balls and strikes this season have seen the home team cash nine times, 7-5 as the favorite. The 'under' is 9-4-1 with Timmons under the mask.
It is supposed to be a warm afternoon in Denver with mostly sunny skies. The thermometer is expected to reach the low-90s with southwest winds in the 10-20 mph range (third base line out to RF).
Houston will head out after this series for the Big Apple and a weekend set with the Yankees. The Rockies remain home for their interleague action with the slugging Toronto Blue Jays due at Coors Field on Friday.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
Don't look now but the Astros are upsetting the baseball betting odds with seven wins in June already. Houston and Colorado finish their series today at Coors Field.
It hasn't happened often over the course of Roy Oswalt's 10 year baseball career. But considering how poorly the Astros have performed when Oswalt starts these days and the club's 9-16 road mark, it's little wonder he is the underdog in Thursday's getaway contest at Colorado.
MLB odds released Wednesday afternoon made Jhoulys Chacin (3-4, 3.77) and the Rockies the 125-130 favorites against Oswalt (4-8, 3.22) and the Astros. The total opened at nine and has stuck.
The Rockies will be trying to earn a series split after starting the four-game set with a victory. Jason Hammels pitched the Rocks past the 'Stros in Monday's series opener, 5-1, with Colorado big 180 chalk at the close. The Rockies were even bigger favorites in Tuesday's contest, minus 250 at several shops, but couldn't hold a lead in a 4-3 loss to Houston.
Wednesday's contest needed in extra inning to complete and Carlos Lee's grand slam won it for the Astros, 6-2. The 10th-inning blast was Lee's second consecutive game-winning hit and third time this season he has won a game for Houston with a home run in the final inning.
The final score marked the third straight 'under' in this series, leaving the Astros 34-23-3 to the low side this season and Colorado even stronger to the 'under' at 35-22-2.
Chacin's hot start to his rookie season has cooled a bit though nothing that an assignment against the punchless Astros can't help. The right-hander is still adjusting to major league hitters and to pitching at Coors where his ERA is about 2.5 runs higher than his overall mark. A lot of that damage came in one particularly bad start against the Nats in mid-May.
The Astros have no business looking ahead on their schedule, but one can't help but think at least a few of them will be thinking about playing in the Bronx on Friday against former Houston pitcher Andy Pettitte.
This will be Chacin's first career appearance versus Houston. More times than not the Astros have been stymied when facing a hurler for the first time.
Oswalt, on the other hand, will be making his 12th career start against Colorado and has pitched very well in his previous four outings at Coors. Houston is 8-3 in the right-hander's career assignments versus the Rockies, and 3-1 when he starts in Denver where his career ERA is 2.17.
It will be just the fourth start of 2010 for Oswalt away from Houston, and he's been outstanding in the previous three. Houston is 2-1 in those three road assignments, the only loss a 2-1 defeat in San Fran against Tim Lincecum on May 15. Oswalt allowed both Giants runs, the only runs he's surrendered outside of the Bayou City limits this year.
Tim Timmons completes the umpire circuit in this series with plate duty on Thursday. His 14 previous games calling balls and strikes this season have seen the home team cash nine times, 7-5 as the favorite. The 'under' is 9-4-1 with Timmons under the mask.
It is supposed to be a warm afternoon in Denver with mostly sunny skies. The thermometer is expected to reach the low-90s with southwest winds in the 10-20 mph range (third base line out to RF).
Houston will head out after this series for the Big Apple and a weekend set with the Yankees. The Rockies remain home for their interleague action with the slugging Toronto Blue Jays due at Coors Field on Friday.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
