Playoff hopefuls conclude set in South Beach

Baseball Betting Lines

08/14/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals have to be frustrated with the way the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers have been playing lately. The Cardinals are four games behind the Brewers in the NL Wild Card standings, but their Central division rivals have ripped off eight straight wins to distance themselves.

St. Louis can only hope for help from other clubs in its quest for a postseason berth and will close out a four-game series this evening against the Florida Marlins at Dolphin Stadium.

The Cardinals have alternated wins and losses over their last six games, having posted a 6-4 victory over Florida on Wednesday behind a solid performance from Troy Glaus, who ended with a game-high four hits and finished with an RBI and a run scored. Jason LaRue knocked in the go-ahead runs with a double in the seventh inning and Skip Schumaker posted three hits in the win.

St. Louis starter Braden Looper earned the win with seven strong innings. The righty only allowed two runs -- one earned -- and five hits while striking out five batters and issuing just one walk. The Cardinals are 3-3 on a 10-game road trip and 34-28 away from Busch Stadium in 2008.

Todd Wellemeyer will be responsible for pitching duties for the Cards on Thursday. Wellemeyer is unbeaten over his past six starts (2-0) and is coming off a solid performance at Chicago's Wrigley Field on August 9.

The right-hander held the rival Cubs to three runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings of a 12-3 drubbing. Wellemeyer, though, has allowed two or more runs in seven of his last eight starts.

Wellemeyer, who is 3-0 with a 3.36 ERA in 11 away starts, has made three career relief appearances against Florida, going 0-0 with a 7.36 earned run average in 3 2/3 innings pitched in the series.

Florida is in the midst of a heated race in the National League East division, but haven't been able to capitalize off of division-leading Philadelphia's current woes. The Phillies have lost three in a row to fall into a tie atop the East standings with the New York Mets, while the Marlins are sitting 1 1/2 games off the pace.

In Wednesday's 6-4 loss to St. Louis, Mike Jacobs drove in two runs and both Hanley Ramirez and Jorge Cantu ended with an RBI in defeat. Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco did not factor in the decision after yielding two runs and 10 hits in six innings of work. Renyel Pinto suffered the loss after permitting two runs on two hits.

The Marlins are 1-2 on a seven-game homestand and 34-28 in South Beach this season. They will hand the ball to Scott Olsen on Thursday and hasn't fared too well over his last few outings.

Olsen has dropped three of his last four starts, with a 5.16 earned run average over that stretch. He previously pitched on August 9 against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium, allowing five runs and nine hits in five innings of his team's 8-6 defeat.

The left-hander is 1-2 with a 7.00 ERA in three career starts against the Cardinals.

St. Louis and Florida are meeting for the first time since the Cardinals won four of six meetings a year ago. St. Louis is 15-7 in this series since the 2005 season, including a 9-3 mark as the visitor.

The Cardinals have won 13 of their last 18 games at Florida.

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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.