Giants target first place as they continue road trip in Arizona

Baseball Betting Lines

09/06/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With first place in the National League's West Division now within their grasp, the San Francisco Giants continue a critical road trip today with the first of three straight meetings with the Arizona Diamondbacks from Chase Field.

San Francisco has taken advantage of San Diego's recent tailspin and closed within a single game of the Padres' lead atop the division with Sunday's 3-0 victory over the rival Los Angeles Dodgers. The win was the Giants' fourth in their last five contests, while the Padres have lost 10 straight games following a 4-2 setback to Colorado yesterday.

The Giants used a stellar pitching performance from Jonathan Sanchez (10-8) to top the Dodgers last night, with the left-hander yielding a mere three hits and striking out nine batters over seven shutout innings.

"I was getting ahead on every hitter," Sanchez said. "When they take the first pitch, I took advantage of it and threw strikes. I'm working on my mechanics and feel I can go deep in the game."

Juan Uribe gave Sanchez some breathing room by belting a two-run homer in the seventh inning to give the Giants a 3-0 advantage, one day after the infielder came through with a go-ahead two-run shot in the ninth that lifted San Francisco to a 5-4 triumph over the Dodgers.

The Giants will attempt to continue their winning ways when they head to Phoenix to take on the last-place Diamondbacks. San Francisco swept a four- game series from Arizona in its last visit to Chase Field and has prevailed in eight of 12 matchups between the NL West foes this season.

Madison Bumgarner helped San Francisco record that above-mentioned sweep with a solid showing against the Diamondbacks on July 24, and will be aiming to duplicate that effort when he takes the mound for today's opener. In his first career start versus Arizona, the rookie surrendered just two runs and struck out seven over seven sharp innings.

Bumgarner has struggled since then, however, having gone 1-2 with a 5.17 earned run average in six subsequent starts. The highly-regarded lefty did turn in a good game this past Tuesday, though, holding Colorado to a run on five hits through six innings in a no-decision.

The 21-year-old's best work this season has come on the road, as Bumgarner is 5-2 with a 3.76 ERA in seven assignments at visiting parks.

He'll be taking on an Arizona squad that has won seven of its last 10 games but will be trying to bounce back from back-to-back home losses to Houston over the weekend. Both of those defeats were by a single run, including Sunday's 3-2 setback in which the Diamondbacks couldn't overcome an early three-run deficit.

Hunter Pence smacked a three-run homer off Arizona starter Rodrigo Lopez in the first inning for Houston's only runs of the day. The blast came after Michael Bourn started the game with a walk and Jeff Keppinger followed with a single to put two runners aboard.

Lopez (5-13) allowed just four more hits over the remainder of his six-inning stint, but was still saddled with his sixth consecutive losing decision.

"I had a hard time adjusting from the stretch, especially with a speedy guy (Bourn) on first base," said Lopez about his rough beginning. "It caused me to throw pitches up in the zone. After that I was able to get the ball down and get my game going the way I wanted it to."

The Diamondbacks would pull within a run on solo homers by Kelly Johnson and John Hester, but went scoreless over the game's final five innings.

Arizona hopes to provide a little more support for Ian Kennedy today in the right-hander's 28th start of the season. The former New York Yankees prospect hasn't needed much help lately, though, as he's 3-0 with a 2.77 ERA over his last four outings and pitched into the seventh inning in three of those tests.

Kennedy enters today's clash off back-to-back victories over the slumping Padres, including an August 26 masterpiece in San Diego in which he permitted just one hit and fanned a career-best 12 batters in seven innings. In a rematch at Chase Field this past Tuesday, the offseason pickup was touched for three runs in seven frames to help the D-Backs to a 7-4 win.

The 25-year-old is 1-1 with a 3.05 ERA in three previous encounters with San Francisco this season, with the loss coming in a head-to-head battle with Bumgarner on July 24. The Giants scored four times off Kennedy in his 6 2/3 innings of work that night.

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Albert Pujols to be This Year's Home Run Champ Says Online Sportsbook

Barry Bonds is a 50-1 long shot to be this year's home run champ odds.  The favorite to be this year's home run champ is none other than Albert Pujols, however.

Now that Barry Bonds is signed and in Giants camp, it is on to his pursuit of all of sports most prestigious records: the all-time home run mark. Bonds sits just 21 homers shy of tying Hank Aaron for the career mark at 755. Word out of Giants’ camp is that Bonds is the healthiest he has been in a few years. Bonds is just two seasons removed from his injury riddled 2005 campaign where he played in only 14 games and hit only 5 home runs. He did come back last year and had a solid season hitting .270 with 26 bombs. All eyes will be on Bonds this spring and summer not only because of his home run chase but his highly publicized steroid abuse allegations. If and when Bonds breaks the record, he surely will not get the positive attention one should for breaking a record that was once thought of as “unbreakable”. Despite Bonds decent season last year, he is just 50-1 at MySportsbook.com to lead the MLB in long balls this season.

Not surprisingly, the favorites to go deep the most times this season are Albert Pujols 5-1, Ryan Howard 6-1, David Ortiz 8-1 and Alex Rodriguez 12-1. With 49 homers, Pujols finished second in the National League behind Howard (58). Pujols is considered the favorite due to the consistent power numbers that he has posted since breaking into the league in 2001. Also one must consider the fact that he played in 16 fewer games then Howard did due to an injury. Howard smashed 58 homers in his first complete season of big league play en route to the National League MVP odds award. He silenced his critics by successfully hitting left-handed pitching. Howard also displayed the ability to use his power to the opposite field. Two attributes which should keep Howard amongst the league leaders in long balls for years to come. From the American League representatives, David Ortiz leads the field. Ortiz was second in the majors last year with 54 home runs. Except for 1999 when he only played in 10 games, Ortiz has improved on his home run numbers each year he has been in the majors (1997).

Be sure to log onto online sports betting site MySportsbook.com to check out the odds for who will lead the MLB in home runs this season. Below is just a sample of the players listed. With the highest credit card rates in the industry, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on baseball this summer.

World Series odds

Adam Dunn 15-1

Albert Pujols 5-1

Alex Rodriguez 12-1

Alfonso Soriano 15-1

Andruw Jones 25-1

Barry Bonds 50-1

Carlos Delgado 40-1

David Ortiz 8-1

Jermaine Dye 40-1

Ken Griffey Jr. 100-1

Lance Berkman 40-1

Manny Ramirez 20-1

Richie Sexson 40-1

Ryan Howard 6-1

Travis Hafner 20-1

Vladimir Guerrero 40-1

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.

College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.