Home Sweet Home
Ryan Dempster’s impressive season has been largely due to his outstanding performances at Wrigley Field.
After winning for only the second time on the road, the All-Star hurler looks to re-establish his success at home Monday night when the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs open a three-game set against the surging Houston Astros.
Oddsmakers from SBG Global have made Chicago -190 money line favorites (MLB Odds) for tonight’s game, the over/under has not been set at this time (Matchup). Current public betting information shows that 86% of bets for this game have been placed on Chicago -190 (View MLB Bet Percentages).
Ryan Dempster (12-4, 2.90 ERA), who was converted to a starter after spending the last three seasons as the Cubs’ closer, is 10-1 with a 2.72 ERA in 13 home starts compared to 2-3 with a 3.17 ERA in 10 road outings.
The right-hander, though, has won his last two road games, including a 9-0 victory at Houston (53-57) on July 20 when he scattered six hits with seven strikeouts in eight innings of a 9-0 victory. He won on the road again Wednesday, yielding one run and fanning nine in seven innings of a 7-2 win at Milwaukee.
"I know the road’s different, everything’s different," said Dempster. "Notoriously, teams don’t play as well on the road and individuals usually don’t do as well on the road, but for me, I feel like I’ve been pitching well on the road."
Dempster hasn’t been effective at home of late, going 0-1 with a 3.55 ERA while walking nine in 12 2-3 innings over two starts. He didn’t get much help either, as the offense produced only three total runs of support.
The Cubs (67-45) are certainly hitting the ball well entering this series, batting .314 with 10 homers and 53 runs to win seven of their last eight. After being five-hit in a 3-0 loss to Pittsburgh on Friday, Chicago responded by collecting 21 total hits to win the next two games, including an 8-5 victory Sunday.
The Cubs are 4-5 against Houston this season, taking a three-game set at Wrigley from April 4-6.
The Astros have won six of seven games after completing a sweep of New York with Sunday’s 4-0 win.
"It feels good at this time," said Astros third baseman Ty Wigginton, who went 2-for-4 with a solo homer Sunday. "We’ve just got to come out and continue playing good baseball."
Houston will turn to Brian Moehler (6-4, 4.23), who is looking to build on his longest outing of the season.
The 36-year-old right-hander is 2-0 with a 4.50 ERA in his last four starts. He came one out shy of a complete game, giving up two runs and seven hits in a 6-2 win over Cincinnati on Tuesday. That performance came six days after getting tagged for six runs and nine hits in a season-low 2 1-3 innings before leaving without a decision in an 8-7 loss to Pittsburgh.
"It was location (on Tuesday)," Moehler said. "I got some balls up, got away with a few and we made some great defensive plays. I located better, I used my changeup better."
Moehler is 1-1 with a 2.86 ERA in his last five games – three starts – against the Cubs, with all of those contests coming at home. He helped Houston to a 2-1 win against them on July 18 by allowing one run and four hits in seven innings while not factoring in the decision.
Moehler is making his first start at Wrigley since June 4, 2000, when he pitched for Detroit.
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