MLB
Tuesday, August 31
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Hot Lines: Today's best MLB bets
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Milwaukee at Cincinnati (-120, 9)
The Cincinnati Reds are looking to pad their lead in the NL Central at the expense of any team that gets in their way right now. They have put up 27 runs while winning three of their last four heading into Monday’s action and are five games in front of the second-place St. Louis Cardinals.
The Reds have had their way against the Milwaukee Brewers this season too, winning five of six meetings before Monday’s series opener.
Milwaukee sends Yovani Gallardo to the mound against Cincinnati on Tuesday. He has given up 12 earned runs over his last two starts.
Pick: Reds
Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs (-240, 9)
The Chicago Cubs have been a different team since Lou Piniella turned over the team’s managerial duties to Mike Quade. The Cubs were 4-2 since the change heading into Monday’s game and face a slumping Jeff Karstens on Tuesday.
Karstens had his last scheduled start skipped due to arm fatigue and has already topped 200 innings this year so Pittsburgh is going to keep a close eye on him for the rest of the year. Karstens has dropped four straight starts and is coming off a rotten outing against the New York Mets.
The 6-foot-3 right hander gave up seven earned runs on 11 hits over just 3 1/3 innings of work and has an 8.40 ERA over his last three starts.
Pick: Over
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Streaking and Slumping Pitchers
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Streaking
Ian Kennedy (8-9, 4.22 ERA) Arizona Diamondbacks
Kennedy is coming off an absolute gem against the San Diego Padres, firing seven innings of shutout ball while allowing just one hit. He struck out a career-high 12 batters.
It was only his first win against San Diego in three tries this year, but he has been fantastic against the Padres in all three starts. He has a 1.59 ERA in those outings, while striking out 27 and walking five.
"The guy who pitched against us has been tough on us, going back to Spring Training in Tucson," Padres manager Bud Black told reporters of Kennedy following their last meeting. "We saw a lot of 3-2 changeups, even deep in the game."
Slumping
Jeff Karstens (2-10, 4.98 ERA), Pittsburgh Pirates
Karstens is looking for any kind of a break to get him on track. He hasn’t won a game since July 4 and is coming off a nasty effort against the New York Mets the last time he took the hill. Karstens gave up seven earned runs on 11 hits over just 3 1/3 innings.
Karstens has also had problems with arm fatigue lately and skipped a start, but says he’s feeling better now.
"It's been a tough year for Jeff. He bounced around a little bit,” Pirates manager John Russell told reporters. “He's been pretty consistent when he came back as a starter. Now he's kind of caught up in a little fatigue in his arm. Just didn't feel quite right. Instead of pushing it, we figured to give him one start off."
Cliff Lee (10-8, 3.26 ERA), Texas Rangers
Lee heads into Tuesday’s start in the middle of a nasty slump. He has lost three straight starts, allowing at least five runs in each of them. Location problems are his main concern at this point and he’s leaving the ball over the plate far too often lately. He has served up five home runs over his last two outings and has only two wins over his last 10 starts.
Texas will give him a break in the rotation following Tuesday’s game.
"It is late in the year and in the last month of the season I guess an extra day couldn't [hurt]," Lee told reporters. "You can work an extra day in. It's not really that big of a deal one way or the other. An extra day will be a good thing at this point of the season. It's really not that big of a deal."
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This Day in Baseball
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On August 31 in Baseball History...
1906 - Beset by injuries, the Tigers call 46-year-old Sam Thompson out of retirement. He drives in two runs in a 5-1 win over the Browns. Thompson last played in the majors in 1898. He appears in eight games and bats .226.
1909 - The A. J. Reach Company is granted a patent for a cork-centered baseball, which will replace the hard rubber-cored one. This change will be particularly apparent in the NL in 1910-11.
1937 - Detroit's rookie Rudy York sets a new record for home runs in a month, hitting his 17th and 18th to eclipse Babe Ruth's mark set in September 1927. Sammy Sosa will break that mark in 1998.
1935 - Vern Kennedy of the Chicago White Sox pitched a no-hitter to beat Cleveland 5-0. Kennedy also had a bases-loaded triple.
1950 - Brooklyn's Gil Hodges tied a major league record by hitting four homers against the Boston Braves in the Dodgers' 19-3 rout. Hodges also added a single for 17 total bases.
1954 - The Indians beat the Yanks 6-1 to record their 26th win of the month, tying the 1931 Philadelphia A's.
1959 - Sandy Koufax breaks Dizzy Dean's National League mark and ties Bob Feller's major league record of 18 strikeouts in a game against the Giants as 82,974 fans watch. He also totals 31 strikeouts for two consecutive games to set a new major league mark. (The major league record for strikeouts in a game is now shared by Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood, while Wood holds the record with 33 strikeouts over two games.)
1964 - Ground is broken for Anaheim Stadium, future home of next year's Angels.
1968 - Steve Blass gets the first out against the Braves, and then moves to left field as Roy Face relieves. Face retires Felix Millan and ties Walter Johnson's major league record of 802 pitching appearances with one club. Blass comes back in and the Pirates go on to win 8-0. Later in the game, the Pirates announce the sale of Face to the Tigers.
1979 - The Phillies fire Danny Ozark, the club's skipper since 1973. Farm director Dallas Green takes over.
1981 - Royals manager Jim Frey is fired and replaced by Dick Howser, whose Yankees lost to Frey's Royals in last season's American League Championship Series.
1989 - Arbitrator Thomas Roberts orders the major league owners to pay $10.5 million in damages as a result of their collusion against free agents after the 1985 season.
1990 - The Ken Griffeys, Griffey, Jr. in center field and Ken (Sr.) in left field, become the first father-and-son combination in major league history to play as teammates, and they each go 1-for-4 in Seattle's 5-2 win over the Royals. The Mariners had signed the elder Griffey after he was waived by the Reds.