Padres' Maddux goes for win No. 350 vs. Rockies

Baseball Betting Lines

05/10/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Greg Maddux will try again for career win No. 350 when he leads the San Diego Padres tonight in the second test of a three-game series versus the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park.

Maddux has lost two straight starts and is 0-3 with a 5.54 ERA in his previous four trips to the hill. In his last attempt at win No. 350 on Sunday at Florida, Maddux was reached for five runs -- four earned -- and 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings of a 10-3 setback at Dolphin Stadium.

The veteran right-hander and future Hall of Famer is 2-3 with a 4.09 ERA in seven starts this season. Maddux is 14-8 with a 4.14 earned run average in 27 career appearances against Colorado.

San Diego continued its struggle with Friday's 4-2 loss to the Rockies in the opener of this set. It has dropped five straight, seven of eight and 18 of the last 22 games to remain last in the NL West division. The Padres will try to avoid losing six straight for the first time since an eight-game skid from July 17-26 of the 2005 season.

Brian Giles hit an RBI double and Kevin Kouzmanoff had a solo home run in defeat. Padres ace Jake Peavy suffered the loss after he was touched for three runs on seven hits in six frames.

Garrett Atkins went 3-for-4 with an RBI for Colorado. Brad Hawpe ended 1-for-4 with a pair of RBI and Matt Holliday added a solo homer and scored twice, as the Rockies posted their third straight win and opened a six-game trip on a good note.

Aaron Cook got the win after he pitched seven innings and only yielded one run on three hits. Brian Fuentes earned his fourth save of the year despite giving up a solo homer to Kouzmanoff in the ninth.

Ubaldo Jimenez gets the nod for the Rockies on Saturday, and he is 1-2 with a 5.82 ERA in seven starts this season. He has registered four straight no decisions and is 0-1 over the past five trips to the hill.

Jimenez last pitched on Monday versus St. Louis and did not factor in the outcome of a 6-5 setback. He yielded four runs -- three earned -- and seven hits in five innings of work.

Jimenez lost to the Padres on April 15 this season, allowing six runs -- two earned -- in 4 2/3 frames of a 6-0 loss at Petco Park. The righty is 1-1 with a 2.55 ERA in three career starts against San Diego.

Colorado won two of three games against the Padres from April 15-17 at Petco Park. The Rockies have won eight of the nine most recent matchups in the series.

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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.