How nice it must be to be a Cubs fan these days. Here the Cubbies are about to enter the month of August and they are only 0.5-games in back of the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central standings. While the division is shaping up to be a nice battle down the stretch, oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com see the Cubs as the favorite team to win the division having them installed at 5/9 odds while the Brewers have slipped only getting a 6/5 chance from the books. Just before the All-Star Break earlier in July it appeared the Brewers might run away and hide with the division lead in tow and wait until the playoffs before making another appearance. At that time the Cubs were one game below .500 and trailed the Brewers by 7 ½ games. Having gone 16-8 in July, the Cubs are the nearest they’ve been to overtaking the Brewers since opening day.
While the Cubs are feeling good about themselves having won their last 4-of-6 games, they can’t let up knowing last years World Champions St. Louis Cardinals are lurking only 6.0 games in back of the Brewers in the division standings. The Cardinals took their weekend series at home against Milwaukee winning 2-of-3 games. At the moment St Louis is getting 10/1 odds chance of repeating as NL Central Division Champs. These odds will quickly change if Albert Pujols has anything to do with it. He told the media following Sunday’s come from behind win that he was really feeling good at the plate. This is not good news for NL opponents.
On Monday the Cubs begin a four-game series hosting the Phillies while the Cardinals begin a three-game set versus the Pirates in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. Chicago is a -145 ml favorite to win its series with Philadelphia while the Cardinals are slight favorites (-135) to edge the Pirates in their three game set.
In game one between the Cubs and Phillies, LHP Ted Lilly (11-4, 3.46 ERA) takes the mound against Phillies LHP Cole Hamels (11-5, 3.63 ERA). Oddsmakers favor Chicago (-112) while the Phillies get +102 ml juice. The total is holding at 8.0. The UNDER price is -125 while the OVER is getting +105.
