Phils start four-game set at home against Rockies

Baseball Betting Lines

07/23/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Phillies seemed confident with Roy Halladay on the mound earlier this season. Lately they've been fortunate to get a win when the former American League Cy Young Award honoree starts.

Halladay will get the nod again Friday in the opener of a four-game series versus the visiting Colorado Rockies at Citizens Bank Park and is just 2-5 with a 2.95 earned run average in his last eight starts. The Phillies are 3-5 in that stretch and Halladay is coming off Sunday's 11-6 loss against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

The right-hander surrendered six runs -- five earned -- and seven hits in six innings after lasting at least nine innings in each of his previous two outings. Halladay fell to 10-8 in 20 starts and raised his ERA from 2.19 to 2.40 following his Windy City appearance. He will pitch against Colorado for the second time this season and did not figure into the decision of a 4-3 loss to the Rockies on May 12 at Coors Field.

Halladay allowed three runs, two of which were earned, and 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings. He is 1-0 with a 1.17 ERA in two career starts against the Rockies.

The Phillies have been brutal lately and were able to salvage the finale of a four-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals with Thursday's 2-0 win in 11 innings at Busch Stadium. Placido Polanco homered to lead off the 11th inning and Jayson Werth later added an RBI double for a 2-0 score. Brad Lidge then posted his eighth save in the bottom half and Chad Durbin posted the win by getting the last two outs in the 10th inning.

Cole Hamels started for the Phillies and allowed just one hit over eight innings with seven strikeouts for the no-decision.

"We were getting single after single and to finally get a round-tripper, that's huge for us," Hamels said of Polanco's homer in the 11th. "Hopefully we can take this sort of game and momentum into tomorrow."

Philadelphia, which ended a four-game slide and is seven games behind the Atlanta Braves for the National League East lead, improved to 2-6 in eight games since the All-Star break and made a coaching move yesterday by relieving hitting coach Milt Thompson of his duties. Thompson had been the team's hitting coach since 2005 and will be replaced by another former Phillie in Greg Gross. Gross had been a coach with the Triple-A Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs for the past three seasons.

The Phillies finished second in the Senior Circuit in scoring in 2005, first in 2006 and 2007, second in 2008 and first again in 2009. They are 12th in the NL this season in batting (.254) and on-base percentage (.322).

Colorado will begin the final stretch of its 11-game road trip and lost three of four games in south Florida. In Thursday afternoon's 3-2 loss from Sun Life Stadium, Ronny Paulino singled home the game-winning run off of Rockies reliever and losing pitcher Jhoulys Chacin.

Jorge De La Rosa held the Marlins to a pair of run and three hits over six innings in his third start since coming back from a left middle finger injury.

"I never lost my confidence," De La Rosa said on the team's site. "I'm going to try to be the same pitcher I was last year, and like I pitched today."

Ian Stewart homered and Jason Giambi finished 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Rockies who have lost six of eight games and are 2-5 on its road trip. Colorado is also 4 1/2 games behind San Diego for the NL West lead.

Taking the mound for the Rox tonight will be Aaron Cook, who is 2-0 in his last three starts and is coming off a solid performance in Sunday's 1-0 win at Cincinnati. Cook tossed seven shutout innings and struck out five batters to improve to 4-5 in 18 starts to go along with a 4.56 ERA.

Cook is just 1-5 in 10 road start this season and will take on the Phils for a second time in 2010. The righty allowed three runs in six innings of a 4-3 win at Coors Field back on May 12 and did not factor in the outcome. In 10 career games (9 starts) against Philadelphia, Cook is just 1-5 with a 5.70 ERA.

Colorado and Philadelphia split that weather-beaten series at 1-1 back in May, while the Phillies have won 11 of the last 14 matchups between the two clubs.

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In what should be an outstanding Saturday of March Madness betting action, the top four teams in the South and West Regions square off in what should be extremely close match-ups. Three of the four teams are coming off extremely close games on Thursday evening, only UCLA won semi comfortably over Pitt 64-55.

Ohio State is coming off their second game in a row where in all reality they should have lost. Of course that doesn’t matter now since the name of the game is “survive and advance” but as the tournament continues, they can’t afford to keep getting down to their opponents early. Kansas also avoided a scare by holding off a scrappy Southern Illinois squad. In the third thrilling game of the evening Memphis pulled off the minor upset (+3.5) despite being the higher seed to Texas A&M.

Although the spreads are fairly small for Saturday’s games, MySportsbook.com continue to bet against the underdogs. Despite OSU’s two scares, 86% of the “betting public” feels the Buckeyes (-1.5) have what it takes to make the Final Four. In fact, so much of the early money is on OSU that the line has already moved from -1 to -1.5. In the second game of the doubleheader, Kansas and their high-powered offense are 2 point favorites as they take on UCLA and their effective defense. About 63% of the early money thus far is once again backing the favorites. If those percentages stay that high, don’t be surprised if this line moves as well. If you like Kansas (-2) you might want to jump on it early.

Memphis vs. Ohio State

Both squads were involved in thrillers on Thursday evening and should come out fired up. OSU can ill afford to get behind early like they did versus their previous two opponents (Xavier, Tennessee). Greg Oden needs to stay out of foul trouble; the Buckeyes are a completely different team when he is on the court. Memphis definitely has the athleticism and length to match-up with OSU. Of Memphis’ five leading minute earners, the shortest of the bunch is 6’5”. Each team has a very effective defense; Memphis surrenders 62.3 PPG whereas the Buckeyes give up only 61 PPG. With those type of numbers, it isn’t surprising that Memphis covered the UNDER almost 69% of the time this season. As a favorite, OSU has covered the UNDER almost 66% of the time over the last three seasons. The major concern for Memphis which is magnifies this time of the year is their brutal foul shooting (62%). This season, OSU is 17-11 ATS versus teams with a winning record and 7-2 ATS in all tournament games. Memphis has been an extremely reliable cover in tournament play in recent years with a 23-8 ATS record over the last three seasons.

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