Cubs try to run win streak to 10 games against Maddux and Padres

Baseball Betting Lines

06/04/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Cubs are one game away from producing their first double-digit win streak in nearly a decade. The red-hot club will attempt to maintain its awesome recent form when it goes up against an old friend in tonight's finale of a three-game series with the San Diego Padres.

Chicago relied once again on its devastating offense to extend its current run to nine games on Tuesday. The Cubs swatted three home runs and pounded out 11 hits to deal the host Padres a 9-6 defeat at Petco Park last night.

Geovany Soto led off the top of the sixth inning with a solo homer that snapped a 3-3 tie, while Mark DeRosa belted a two-run shot later in the frame to lengthen the margin to three runs.

Alfonso Soriano later put the contest out of reach with a three-run blast in the eighth that gave Chicago a comfortable 9-3 lead.

The offensive surge helped out starter Jason Marquis (3-3), who managed to pick up the victory despite walking five Padres in five innings and giving up three runs. Kerry Wood finished things off with a scoreless ninth to notch his 16th save of the season.

Bryan Corey (1-1) suffered the loss after surrendering three runs and four hits in 1 1/3 innings in relief of starter Wilfredo Ledezma, who was touched for three runs and walked three over the first 4 2/3 frames.

Adrian Gonzalez led San Diego offensively with three hits and a run batted in. The standout first baseman tops the National League with 55 RBI and is batting .520 (13-for-25) with 11 RBI during a six-game hitting streak.

Chicago last won 10 consecutive outings as part of a 12-game surge from May 19-June 2, 2001. The Cubs also improved to 5-1 against the Padres this season with Tuesday's triumph, although San Diego is 13-8 in this series since the start of the 2005 campaign.

Ex-Cub Greg Maddux will be in charge of the task of slowing down Chicago's dangerous attack tonight. The legendary right-hander will also be trying to halt a four-start winless streak since earning his 350th career victory on May 10.

Maddux's drought began with a rough start at Wrigley Field on May 15, when the future Hall of Famer was tagged for four runs and 11 hits in 4 1/3 innings of a 4-0 setback. He's recorded three no-decisions since that appearance, although Maddux has posted a solid 2.76 earned run average during that stretch.

The 42-year-old was last in action Friday in San Francisco and allowed two runs and five hits over six innings of work.

Maddux was drafted by the Cubs in 1984 and spent his first seven major league seasons with the organization from 1986-92. He returned to Chicago in 2004 and pitched another two-plus seasons with the Cubs before being traded to the Dodgers midway through the 2006 campaign.

In 23 career starts versus his former club, Maddux is a stellar 12-4 with a 2.71 ERA.

Chicago counters tonight with Ted Lilly, who has won four straight decisions but hasn't fared particularly well in either of his last two starts.

Home runs have done Lilly in recently. He yielded two of them in an ugly three-inning stint against Colorado on Thursday and served up three long balls in six frames at Pittsburgh on May 25. For the season, the left-hander has given up 12 homers in just 65 innings.

Lilly wound up with a no-decision in both of those games, although he was rocked for seven runs (4 earned) and eight hits in his brief outing against the Rockies.

The 32-year-old racked up a season-best 11 strikeouts in a victory over the Padres on May 14, which improved Lilly to 4-0 with a 2.93 ERA in five games (4 starts) against San Diego. He allowed four runs and six hits over six innings in that last matchup with the Padres.

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