San Diego Padres (5-7) AT Houston Astros (4-9)
April 15, 2011 at 8:05 PM EST
Opening Runline: HOU -1.5 +175, SDG +1.5 -205
Current Runline: HOU -1.5 +185, SDG +1.5 -220
Opening Moneyline: HOU -120, SDG +100
Current Moneyline: HOU -106, SDG -104
Opening Total: 8
Current Total: 8.5
SP: SDG- A. Harang, HOU- J. Happ
Both the Padres and the Astros sit at the bottom of their respective divisions and will look to push one another even further into debt in their division.
Aaron Harang is dipping into his bag of tricks to begin playing like vintage Aaron Harang again. Harang was the Reds’ ace from 2005 to 2007 but he had fallen off in recent years, possibly due to being overworked early in his career. After back to back 16 win seasons, he went 18-38 with a 4.71 ERA in his last three seasons with the Reds. Last season Harang pitched only 111 innings and he posted an atrocious 5.32 ERA. PECOTA saw the improvement coming, predicting a 4.34 ERA, nearly a full run better than 2010. He’s also expected to pitch 189 innings this season, which would be his most since 2007.
“He’s been extremely motivated to get back to a level of performance that he was accustomed to for a number of years there in Cincinnati,” Padres manager Bud Black commented.
Harang is 6-5 with a 4.00 ERA in Houston and his ERA for the last 3 wins is 3.00. He’s going to need more help from the offense than what they gave on Thursday in a shutout loss to Houston. They went 0 of 8 with runners in scoring position. They are batting .206 on the season now.
“We’ve got to keep grinding it out,” Padres outfielder Ryan Ludwick said. “You always hear the phrase: ‘Hitting’s contagious.’ Hopefully the contagiousness goes on the positive side here in a minute.”
J.A. Happ will take the mound for the Astros. His first start was not good, as he gave up 7 runs in 4 innings. He came back on April 5th to allow only one run and four hits in 7 2/3rds innings as the Astros went on to win 7-1 over the Marlins.
“I was trying to get ahead of hitters and pitch aggressively,” Happ said. “More or less just have some conviction with what I’m throwing and be aggressive with it. (Sunday) was a lot better.”
Houston’s Carlos Lee has struggled but this may be just the pitcher to take him out of his slump. Lifetime against Harang, Lee has hit .400 (16 for 40) and has recorded 4 doubles and a homer.
San Diego is 2-6 SU in their last 8 games and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of their last 7 games. The total has also gone UNDER In 8 of their last 11 on the road and it has gone UNDER again in 7 of their last 8 against the Astros. The Padres are 2-7 SU in their last 9 road games against the Houston Astros and the total has gone UNDER in 6 of San Diego’s last 7 games on the road against the Astros.
Houston is 7-18 SU in their last 25 games and the total has gone OVER In 9 of their last 13 games. The total has gone OVER in 9 of their last 13 games and it has also gone OVER In 4 of their last 6 at home. The total has gone UNDER in 7 of their last 8 against San Diego and Houston is 7-2 SU in their last 9 games at home against the Padres. The total has gone UNDER in 6 of Houston’s last 7 games at home against the Padres.
If Harang can continue to find the fountain of youth, this could be a cakewalk for the Padres. On the other hand, their offense has been pretty bad. The question is, will Harang get any run support? If the answer is yes, expect a Padres win.
