Cubs try to keep momentum going as Padres pay visit

Baseball Betting Lines

05/12/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Cubs enter a four-game set with a chip on their shoulders, as they are coming off an impressive sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Tonight, the club will welcome the San Diego Padres to town for the series opener at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs opened their 10-game homestand in red-hot fashion, outscoring the Diamondbacks 16-7 over the weekend. In Sunday's 6-4 victory in the series finale, Daryle Ward's two-run pinch-hit double in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted Chicago to victory after the start of game was delayed for 58 minutes due to rain.

Reed Johnson hit a two-run homer for the Cubs, winners in four of their last five games overall. Derrek Lee also went deep in the win, while Kosuke Fukudome finished 2-for-4 and scored a run.

Carlos Marmol earned the win as four Chicago relievers combined for 4 2/3 shutout innings. Kerry Wood picked up his seventh save with a scoreless ninth.

Sean Gallagher lasted 4 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on five hits for the Cubs, who will also host the Pittsburgh Pirates for three games in the Windy City on this homestand.

Carlos Zambrano, whose scheduled start on Sunday was pushed back because of weather conditions, gets the call for Chicago this evening. Zambrano is 5-1 with a 1.80 earned run average in eight starts this season, and 4-0 over his past five trips to the mound.

Zambrano is coming off his best performance of the season, in which he hurled a season-high eight shutout innings of three-hit ball during a 3-0 win at Cincinnati on Tuesday.

The fiery right-hander, who is 3-0 in five home starts in 2008, owns a 4-1 record and a 1.94 ERA in seven career outings versus San Diego.

Taking the hill for the Padres on Monday will be Randy Wolf. Wolf is 2-2 with a 4.14 earned run average in seven starts in 2008, but is 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA over his last three starts.

Wolf pitched on Wednesday in a 5-2 loss at Atlanta and was shelled for five runs and eight hits in six frames. The left-hander is 2-5 with a 4.35 ERA in 12 career games against the Cubs.

San Diego just won the last two games of a three-game series from the Colorado Rockies after losing five in a row. It posted a 6-1 triumph in Sunday's series finale, as Khalil Greene belted a two-run home run and Tadahito Iguchi added three hits with a run scored and an RBI.

Scott Hairston had a solo home run and Kevin Kouzmanoff chipped in a pair of hits and an RBI for San Diego. Padres starter Chris Young got the win after he went six innings and allowed only one run on five hits.

The Padres will open a seven-game road trip tonight in Chicago. They went 5-3 against the Cubs last season, with a 3-2 mark at Wrigley Field, and are 12-3 over the previous 15 matchups in this series.

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MySportsbook.com favors Bears, Bengals, Chargers and Colts to remain perfect

LAS VEGAS , Sept. 28 - Two big match-ups of undefeated teams have fans salivating at the Week Four schedule in the NFL. The Chicago Bears stifling defense looks to provide a less than hospitable welcome to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night in a battle of two 3-0 teams in the NFC conference. In the AFC, the San Diego Chargers (2-0) head to Maryland to face the surprising Baltimore Ravens (3-0) as both try to keep pace atop the conference standings. Betting Lines makers at MySportsbook.com, online sportsbook and casino, have set the Bears as 3.5 point favorites while the Chargers are a 2.5 point bet.

Of the three remaining undefeated teams, only one, New Orleans, enters this week's game as an underdog. Despite an emotional and resounding win over Atlanta on Monday night, the Saints are a 7.5 point underdog against the struggling Carolina Panthers. Indianapolis looks to stay perfect when they face the New York Jets as a 9 point road favorite while the Cincinnati Bengals are a 6 point favorite at home to the New England Patriots.

Six teams enter the week still looking for their first win, with a seventh, Tampa Bay, on a bye week. The prospect of dropping another game would not bode well for a potential playoff run. Since 1990, just three teams -- the 1992 Chargers, 1995 Detroit Lions and 1998 Buffalo Bills -- have overcome losing their first three games of the season to earn a postseason berth. And only the Chargers managed to accomplish the feat after starting 0-4.

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