Offenses held in check in Cubs and Reds initial 2010 baseball betting battle

NL Central baseball betting picks up from the Great American Ballpark when the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds partake in the first of 16 scheduled regular season meetings.

Manager Lou Piniella’s club avoided the sweep in their series finale with the Atlanta Braves last night winning 2-0 behind a stellar pitching performance from Randy Wells and company.

LF Jonny Gomes scratched the first tally in the win column for manager Dusty Baker’s Reds yesterday afternoon when he launched a walk-off homer into the bleachers to earn Cincy the 2-1 victory against the rival Cardinals.

Chicago Cubs (1-2, -$36) vs. Cincinnati Reds (1-2, -$100)

Game Date/Time: Friday, April 9th, 7:10 ET
Game Location: Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati, OH
TV Broadcast: WGN, FOX (Ohio), XM Radio

MLB Baseball Odds:

Chicago Cubs +1’ -170 +120
(Carlos Silva – R)

Cincinnati Reds -1’ +150 -140
(Homer Bailey – R)

Total: 9 O EVEN 9 U -120

The Cubs 2010 opener looks to be an anomaly through three games played. After the pitching staff allowed a whopping 16 runs on 12 hits on Monday, it limited the Braves potent lineup to just 13 hits and three runs combined the next two games.

Looking to keep the Cubs successful pitching prowess intact will be veteran righty Carlos Silva. He came over from Seattle in the move that shipped Milton Bradley out of Chicago.

Silva hopes to get back to his dominant form after stinking it up in Seattle each of the L/2 seasons. He went 1-3 with a bloated 8.60 ERA in six starts for the M’s a year ago.

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This will be his first career look against the Cincinnati Reds.

Getting his first starting nod of the season will be RHP Homer Bailey who looks to build upon the fabulous showing he churned out to close out the 2008 regular season. Over a span of nine starts, the youngster went 6-1 with a stellar 1.70 ERA.

With the spotlight off of him, Bailey has really taken to the #4 slot in the Reds starting rotation. He finished up 8-5 with a 4.53 ERA & 1.47 WHIP a year ago, and will look to continue being the strikeout pitcher he proved himself to be after K’ing 168 batters through 203 innings of combined work in the big leagues and Triple-A.

He’s 1-1 with a 5.73 ERA & 2.09 WHIP in two career starts vs. the Cubs.

MLB Baseball Betting Insider Tip: The Cubs secured 10 baseball betting wins in the 15 games played against the Reds last season. The contests were mostly dominated by each team’s respective pitching staffs.

The under cashed in nine of those games (9-4-1 ATS), and these division rivals have played to the under in five of the L/7 at the Great American Ballpark.

With Silva looking for a bounce back season and Bailey looking to build upon the end of a fabulous 2008 campaign, I look for both pitchers to be honed in this evening.

Neither offense has found its stride yet with the Cubs plating an average of just 3 RPG (#28) and the Reds chiming in with 3.67 RPG (#21).

With that being the case, look for Game 1 of this divisional series to be of the lower scoring variety.

My MLB Prediction: Chicago/Cincinnati under (Silva/Bailey)