Orioles vs. Cubs MLB Betting Preview

[Shame About Ray]

MLB Handicappers and sportsbettors of the belief that the Cubs would suffer a bit of a letdown in last night’s online gambling affair against Baltimore after sweeping the White Sox were rewarded handsomely for their foresight. The AL East representative Orioles went into Wrigley and snapped the Cubs 14-game home winning streak by holding on and winning 7-5 in what turned out to be a very exciting late inning round one of the set. Jeremy Guthrie threw six decent innings to nail down his fourth victory of the season, and Closer George Sherrill had to expend a ton of energy in his 1 1/3rd innings of work but still picked up his 26th save.



The Cubs had plenty of chances to plate some runs in the contest, but they grounded into four double plays on the night and Ronnie Cedeno, Kosuke Fukudome, and Henry Blanco all struck-out in the bottom of the ninth with the bases juiced. The loss dropped the Cubs to 48-29 on the year, and they lost a game in the NL Central as St. Louis went into Comerica Park and surprisingly disposed of a red-hot Detroit Tigers club. Now at 32-9, the Cubs still own the best home record in all of baseball that’s reeled MLB bettors in a whopping $1830.00 on the season. As for Baltimore, they currently sit three games over .500 at 39-36 and trail the Boston Red Sox by 6.5-games in the NL East.

On the road, they now sit at 17-24, but they’ve only lost the betting public a couple hundred bucks as a visitor.

Left-hander Brian Burres will take his 6-5 overall mark with him to the bump tonight in search of grabbing his club their first winning road series since the beginning of June at Toronto. He hasn’t lost since his June 1st start at home vs. Boston, and he’s done much better work away from Camden Yards where he’s 2-3 with a 3.86 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. The O’s have won four of his last five starts and eight of his 14 overall starts this season. This will be his first career start against the Chicago Cubs franchise.

Looking to start a new home winning streak will be left-hander Ted Lilly who comes into tonight’s start 7-5 with a 4.71 ERA and 1.34 WHIP. His control was a bit better in his last start against the White Sox where he walked three, but he K’d eight overall and now has 30 strikeouts in his L/4 starts. Lilly’s 4-2 at home and has allowed 43 hits and 28 runs (25 earned) with a K/BB ratio of 54/16 in 46 innings of work. He’s had success against Baltimore throughout his career going 6-2 with a 4.23 ERA and 1.37 WHIP in 12 career starts with his most recent start being a 4-2 win at Toronto back in 2006 when he was still a member of the Blue Jays.

Oddsmakers opened the Cubs lofty –180 home favorites in tonight’s baseball betting affair, with the ‘total’ set at 10.5 even. BetUS.com offers all MLB betting odds be it side, total, or run-line, so be sure to login to your account and get your wagers down before tonight’s first pitch.

Even with last night’s defeat, the Cubs are 16-8 in their 24 meetings against left-handed starters this season. The O’s picked up a rare victory against a southpaw last night to improve its poor mark to 8-12 overall this season, but, they’re still a bankroll depleting 9-24 the L/33 times they’ve opposed a lefty. After winning last night, look for the O’s offense to have its hands full against a more polished hurler in Ted Lilly whose had great success against Baltimore throughout his career.