By Craig Macleish - San Jose, Costa Rica

It’s by no means been fun being a Cub fan over the L/10 days as they’ve now gone on to drop eight of their L/10 overall, and fell in last nights MLB online betting affair to the hated St. Louis Cardinals in walk-off fashion. The 2008 season series now stands at five games a piece...

Ryan Dempster was simply cruising along with a three run lead in his back pocket up until the sixth inning when Skip Schumacher led off the inning with a double and Aaron Miles reached on a bunt single to advance him to third. Albert Pujols then crushed the first pitch he saw into the right field bleachers, and the game was knotted at three.

The Cubs once again left too many on the base paths (5) throughout their next three at bats ultimately allowing St. Louis the chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth, and win it they did after the first two men got on base allowing pinch runner Brendan Ryan to score on a well placed ground ball up the middle. Geovany Soto tried to block him off the plate, but the heady Ryan reached over his block to tap the plate and give the Cards the exhilarating 4-3 victory.

Sure, it’s another loss and another gut-wrenching one at that, but things aren’t as gloomy for the Northsiders as media outlets are making it out to be. With Milwaukee choking another one away at home to Cincinnati last night, the Cubs still hold a 4.5-game lead in the NL Central with 18 games left on the docket.

The story isn’t the same for Cubs bettors however, as Chicago’s now cost the MLB wagering public upwards of $850 over its L/10 games played, and its 35-34 road record now finds them $20 in the red after dropping three of the first four on this nine-game road trip.

Last night’s victory allowed St. Louis to claw within 3.5-games of the Wild Card leading Milwaukee Brewers, and come into the second of this three-game set with the Cubs winners in five of their L/11 overall. The Redbirds have been a lucrative investment for baseball sportsbettors on the year reeling in close to $1200 on the season.

Chicago is 11-7 on the year in the second game of a series off a losing effort the previous day, while St. Louis counters with a losing 11-12 mark in Game 2 of a series if they came out victorious in the series opener.

Toeing Busch Stadium’s bump for the third time in ’08 will be southpaw Ted Lilly who carries a 13-9 record with a 4.43 ERA in 30 overall starts. He got trounced by the Reds for the fifth time this season his last time out in a game that saw him throw just 42 pitches through two innings allowing five earned runs on four hits. He’s pitched very well against the Redbirds this season – (23.1 IP, 20 hits, 7 ER’s, 13:4 K/BB ratio). In his career against St. Louis, Lilly’s 4-2 with a 2.98 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in nine overall starts.

The Cardinals Braden Looper gets the call for the 30th time this season off a no decision effort at home against the Marlins where he tossed 7 1/3rd innings of shutout baseball. He’s only had two poor starts in his L/10 efforts, and has been tougher to score on at home (3.86 ERA) than overall (4.09 ERA). He’s been rock solid against Chicago this season (14 IP, 12 hits, 4 ER), but the Cardinals lost both outings. He’s 2-2 with a 1.98 ERA and 0.98 WHIP in six career starts against the Cubs.

Sportsbook Oddsmakers opened the Cubs -110 road favorites in tonight’s baseball betting affair, with the ‘total’ currently sitting at 9 under -120. BetED.com offers all MLB betting odds be it side, total, or run-line, so be sure to login to your account and get your wagers down before the first pitch.