Sabathia continues to roll as Brewers bury Astros

Baseball Betting Lines

08/19/2008 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - C.C. Sabathia put together another solid performance on the mound and Ray Durham drove in three runs, as the Milwaukee Brewers bested the Houston Astros, 9-3, in the opener of a three-game series from Miller Park.

C.C. Sabathia (8-0) notched his fifth complete game since he was acquired from the Cleveland Indians on July 7, allowing three runs -- two earned -- on 11 hits with nine strikeouts. Sabathia has won a career-high 11 straight decisions since June 10 and improved to 14-8 with a 2.99 earned run average in 27 overall starts this season. Sabathia helped his own cause at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI.

"I thought I had pretty good stuff," Sabathia said. "They (the Astros) did a good job of staying on the ball when it was away and on two strikes."

Durham had three hits and scored a run for the Brewers, who have won two of their last three games and own a 2 1/2 game lead over idle St. Louis in the NL Wild Card standings. Corey Hart finished 3-for-4 with a solo homer, two RBI and two runs scored. Jason Kendall was 2-for-3 with a walk and three runs scored.

Darin Erstad collected three hits and Reggie Abercrombie clubbed a solo home run for Houston, which lost for just the third time in its last 12 games. Ty Wigginton, who was named the co-National League Player of the Week (along with New York's Johan Santana), had a solo homer to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 15 games. Mark Loretta drove in the other Houston run.

Randy Wolf (8-11) was saddled with the loss after he gave up six runs on five hits in just four innings of work.

"He showed he is a horse," Houston manager Cecil Cooper said of Sabathia. "I guess they're going to hitch their wagon to him and try to ride him off into the sunset, but he was a horse tonight."

The Brewers scratched out a run in the first. Ryan Braun worked a two-out walk and Prince Fielder was hit by a pitch before Hart ripped an RBI double to left field. Milwaukee was bidding for more, but Bill Hall flied out to end the inning.

Milwaukee expanded its lead with a five-run surge in the fourth. Fielder walked and Hart singled to begin the frame and Kendall was intentionally walked with two outs, loading the bases for Sabathia. The pudgy left-hander delivered and slapped a two-run single into shallow left field. Durham plated another run with a double and J.J. Hardy stroked a two-run single for a 6-0 Brewers advantage.

Houston got on the board in the fifth on Abercrombie's pinch-hit homer, and Wigginton's lead-off home run in the next inning made it a 6-2 game. An RBI single by Durham in the bottom of the sixth gave the Brewers a five-run cushion.

The advantage grew to 8-2 in the seventh on Hart's one-out blast. Milwaukee then picked up another run in the eighth on a run-scoring double off the bat of Durham.

Loretta's sacrifice fly in the ninth accounted for the final score.

Game Notes

Sabathia is only the third starting pitcher over the last 90 seasons to win his first seven or more decisions after an in-season trade. He joins Virgil Trucks (1953), who started 8-0 after he went from the Browns to the White Sox, and Doyle Alexander (1987), who went 9-0 after going from the Braves to the Tigers...Milwaukee infielder Rickie Weeks was out of the lineup on Monday with a sprained left thumb. He is listed as day-to-day...Braun, bothered by tightness in his lower back in the last week, was taken out of the game for precautionary measures in the sixth...Houston's Brian Moehler (8-4) and Milwaukee's Ben Sheets (11-6) are scheduled to start on Tuesday.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.