Slumping Padres head to Colorado for divisional showdown

Baseball Betting Lines

07/23/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Diego Padres will try and stop a three-game slide when they play the first of three contests against the NL West-rival Colorado Rockies tonight at Coors Field.

San Diego just dropped three of four to the Philadelphia Phillies, including Sunday's 9-0 loss in the series finale. Padres All-Star pitcher Jake Peavy lasted six innings, allowing four runs on nine hits to go along with six strikeouts and two walks.

The Padres, losers of nine of their last 14 games, registered just five hits on the day and sit one game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for the lead in the National League West standings.

Toeing the rubber for San Diego this evening will be Greg Maddux, who is 7-7 with a 4.17 earned run average in 20 starts this season. Maddux is winless over his previous four outings (0-3) and did not post a decision on Wednesday against the New York Mets, despite hurling five shutout innings of four-hit ball during an eventual 5-4 San Diego victory.

Maddux, who is 2-3 in 10 road starts this season, is 0-2 with a 5.83 ERA in two starts against Colorado in 2007. In 23 career starts against the Rockies, the righty is 12-7 with a shutout and a 4.25 earned run average.

Colorado has lost two straight games and dropped three of four to the Washington Nationals over the weekend. In Sunday's 3-0 loss in the series finale, Todd Helton had two hits and starter Josh Fogg pitched six scoreless innings of three-hit ball. Jorge Julio then absorbed the loss for giving up all three Washington runs in the eighth inning.

Trying to keep an unbeaten streak intact tonight will be Rockies starter Jeff Francis, who is 10-5 with a 4.07 ERA in 20 starts this season. He is unbeaten over his past seven outings, having posted a 5-0 record with a 4.60 ERA.

Francis has won back-to-back starts and defeated Pittsburgh the last time out on Wednesday, permitting two runs in seven frames of a 5-3 victory.

The left-hander was beaten by San Diego earlier this season on April 21, when he allowed 13 hits and six runs in a 7-3 setback. In 12 career starts against the Padres, Francis is 4-8 with a 5.75 earned run average.

San Diego is 4-2 against the Rockies this season, including a 2-1 mark at Coors Field. Colorado went 10-9 in last season's series with the Padres.

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Football Betting

NFL Football Betting Online

The San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.

Thursday, August 21

NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37

NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road

In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.

Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):

* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games

Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.

Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.

Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.

That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.

Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.

CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

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