Cards to send out another ace in finale with Jays

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06/24/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals will try to exit Canada with a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays when the two clubs close out an interleague series tonight from Rogers Centre.

St. Louis rode Jaime Garcia to a win in the series opener and Chris Carpenter pushed his mark to 9-1 with eight shutout innings of three-hit ball and seven strikeouts last night. Carpenter walked four batters in the 1-0 win and has red-hot outfielder Matt Holliday to thank for his latest triumph.

Holliday had a clutch RBI single off of Blue Jays reliever Kevin Gregg with two outs in the top of the ninth inning to aid St. Louis' 11-hit attack and owns five homers and 11 runs batted in over his last five games.

"It was a breaking ball and I kind of caught it out in front," Holliday said on the team's site. "He was throwing me cutters and fastballs and [with the count] 3-2 he throws me, I don't know what he calls it, maybe a slider or a slurve."

Ryan Franklin notched his 14th save in the ninth, while Albert Pujols had four hits in St. Louis' sixth win in eight tries. Randy Winn finished with three hits, including a single in the deciding ninth inning before coming home on Holliday's base hit.

The NL Central-leading Cardinals are one game ahead of Cincinnati in the division standings. The Reds have won three straight to keep pace.

Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright is trying to catch Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez for the most wins in the majors and will shoot for his 11th victory tonight up. Jimenez currently has 13 wins, while Wainwright is 10-4 with a 2.23 ERA in 15 outings this season.

Wainwright has won two straight and four of his last five starts, including a strong eight-inning performance last Saturday in a 4-3 victory versus the Oakland Athletics. He limited the A's to one unearned run and five hits with four strikeouts and one walk.

The right-hander hopes to even his 3-4 road mark tonight in his first career appearance against the Blue Jays.

Toronto hopes to salvage the finale of this set and wasted a valiant effort from young hurler Ricky Romero on Wednesday. Just like his counterpart Carpenter, Romero also threw eight shutout innings and gave up eight hits with five K's and one walk in the no-decision.

"It was a tough one, a pitchers' duel," said Romero. "Facing [Carpenter], I knew it was going to be a tough one. It was just a good game,"

Gregg was dealt the loss for giving up the only run of the game on three hits for the Blue Jays, who have dropped three in a row since a three-game winning streak. Toronto is seven games off the pace in the American League East.

If history has any bearing on what Brandon Morrow's results will be tonight, the right-hander appears to be headed for a win versus St. Louis. Morrow has alternated wins in losses in all nine of his decisions this season for the Jays, and is 4-5 with a 4.97 ERA in 14 starts.

Morrow did not record a decision his last time out in a 3-2 win over San Francisco on Thursday, one start after losing at Colorado. He held the Giants to a pair of runs in six innings of work and owns a 4-1 record in seven home starts.

A former first-round pick of Seattle in 2006, Morrow has never faced St. Louis.

These two clubs are meeting for the first time since the Blue Jays took two of three at home over the Cardinals from June 13-15, 2005. St. Louis swept three meetings back in 2003 at Busch Stadium.

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The NFL preseason is approaching. Time for players, coaches and teams to turn over a new leaf. General managers have hired some new coaches, while coaches have added some offensive and defensive assistants to try and improve things. Here’s a look at some changes to look for in the preseason.

New York Jets: The Jets were one of the surprise teams in the NFL last season, making the playoffs under hard-driving first-year coach Eric Mangini. Mangini rebuilt the offensive line with rookies D'Brickashaw Ferguson (the No. 4 pick in the 2007 Draft) and Ohio State center (the 29th pick in the first round). This season he upgraded the defense with rookie linebacker David Harris (Michigan) while the secondary picked up a much needed top-notch corner in Pitt CB Darrelle Revis (No. 14 overall).

The Jets have added balance to the offense for QB Chad Pennington with RB Thomas Jones, essentially stolen from the Bears. He will upgrade a New York ground game that was 20th in rushing with a weak 3.5 yards per carry. They have their first true feature back since Curtis Martin. Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer prefers ball control, like his father Marty. In preseason, behind Pennington you’ll see second-year QB Kellen Clemens and mobile newcomer QB Marques Tuiasosopo.

Jacksonville Jaguars: The heat is on Jack Del Rio in Jacksonville as the Jaguars flopped last season despite a ton of talent. Keep in mind that under Del Rio the Jaguars have been outstanding in preseason with a 12-4 SU, 11-5 ATS August mark. online football betting Their defense is loaded, it’s the offense that has been stuck in first gear the last few years.

Enter a new offensive coordinator in Dirk Koetter, the former Boise State and Arizona State pass-happy coach. He will try and upgrade a passing game that ranked 24th last season. Del Rio has criticized wide receivers and Matt Jones this summer, both of whom have battled injuries. It will be interesting to watch the “new” Jaguars passing game in preseason.

Arizona Cardinals: Word out of Arizona is that the players like new coach Ken Whisenhunt, who was the Steelers offensive coordinator last year. We think of Arizona as all-passing because their running game has been awful of late because of a poor offensive line. However, keep an eye on the running game in preseason as they’ve made a lot of changes.

The new coach brings in Russ Grimm to coach the offensive line (Grimm did a marvelous job building the Steelers line). They took Penn State OT Levi Jones in the first round and signed two offensive linemen, Mike Gandy and Al Johnson, to provide depth. Reggie Wells was moved from right tackle to left guard and they want more speed out of the offensive line for pulling and traps, a Pittsburgh staple under Bill Cowher.

Atlanta Falcons: While all the attention has been focused on QB Mike Vick’s off-field problems, new coach Bobby Petrino is revamping the Falcons from an all-running team to a more balanced one. Petrino likes the experience of backup QB Joey Harrington and he has veteran backup Chris Redman, who used to play for Petrino at Louisville and knows his offenses better than anyone. Petrino wants Vick to be more of a pocket passer.

The addition of FB Ovie Mughelli is a sign Petrino wants a power rushing attack behind a physical fullback and newcomer WR Joe Horn should upgrade what was a below average wideout corps. Petrino is changing their old zone-blocking scheme to a more traditional in-line blocking scheme and the offensive line is bigger. Rookie DE Jamaal Anderson was grabbed in the first round and the secondary got younger with former Auburn cornerback David Irons, who the Falcons think was a steal as a sixth-round pick.

Cleveland Browns: The 2007 Browns look like a double-edged sword. There was the excitement of the offseason, trading for RB Jamel Lewis, upgrading the offensive line with Wisconsin’s Joe Thomas (the No. 2 pick in the draft) and free agent LG Eric Steinbach, then trading for Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn when he fell to No. 22. GM Phil Savage and head coach Romeo Crennel feel they have a talented, balanced offense with these new pieces, plus TE >Kellen Winslow and WR Braylon Edwards.

However, were these moves made in desperation? And were they foolish ones? The Browns gave up their 2008 first-round pick for Quinn and we all know QBs take time to develop. And even first-round QBs can be busts (Joey Harrington, Akili Smith). We also don’t know if the offensive line is that much improved (31st in rushing in 2007) and they did nothing to improve a defense that was awful against the run (142 yds pg allowed).

The Browns have a new offensive coordinator in Rob Chudzinski. This is a young offense and Quinn looked tentative, indecisive and inaccurate early in camp. Crennel will play Charlie Frye, Quinn and Derek Anderson in preseason. And there is a mixed bag for rookie QBs receiving significant starts: Tim Couch (14), Kerry Collins (13), Ben Roethlisberger (13), Vince Young (13), Joey Harrington (12), Matt Leinart (11) and Kyle Boller (nine). While all the focus will be on the Browns new-look offense, I’m more concerned with the defense.

Carolina Panthers: Coach Jon Fox loves the ground game, but Carolina has made some interesting changes for 2007. Fox fired offensive coordinator Dan Henning and brings in Jeff Davidson to run the offense. Davidson has brought in zone-blocking schemes to the Panther offense, a dramatic change for a system that's been built around a power-running style.

In zone-blocking, offensive linemen are responsible for blocking any defender who appears in their zone, instead of focusing on one defender. The Broncos and Falcons have had success with the system, which features smaller, more athletic offensive linemen and can create running lanes on the inside and outside. Keep an eye in preseason on how Carolina adjusts as it will take time to learn the system. Fox has been one of the top coaches in preseason, with a 15-5 SU, 12-7-1 ATS August record.

Dallas Cowboys: WR Terrell Owens is still here, but QB Drew Bledsoe and Bill Parcells are gone. New head coach Wade Phillips takes over, replacing Parcells. He ran the Chargers defense last season. Phillips was chosen by teary-eyed owner Jerry Jones partly because he is one of the best 3-4 coaches in football and the Cowboys have loaded up on players for that scheme.

Remember that Phillips was blitz-happy with the Chargers last season and early reports out of the Dallas camp have mentioned how the Cowboys have been blitzing a lot, a departure from Parcells. The theme of the 2007 Dallas defense appears to be one of attack.

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