Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
09/05/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Newly-minted Astro lefty J.A. Happ can make it five wins in seven decisions with Houston today when they visit Chase Field to close out a three-game weekend series with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Arizona won Friday's opener, 4-3, but Houston took game two after Carlos Lee hit the game-winning three-run home run in the eighth inning and drove in four to cap a 6-5 come-from-behind win. Lee finished 2-for-4 while Jeff Keppinger also went 2-for-4 and scored twice for the Astros, who have won four of five.
Mark Melancon (2-0) tossed a scoreless inning to grab the win in relief and Brandon Lyon stranded the potential tying run at third base in the bottom of the ninth to earn his 12th save of the season for Houston, which defeated the hosts for just a second time in their last 10 meetings.
Aaron Heilman (5-6) continued the D'Backs' year-long bullpen implosion by coughing up a three-run lead.
He suffered the loss after allowing four runs on four hits while recording just two outs for the Diamondbacks, who fell for only a second time in their last nine contests overall.
Arizona starter Joe Saunders yielded a pair of runs on three hits while walking two and fanning four in seven innings, turning a 5-2 lead over to Heilman.
Happ, a native of Spring Valley, Ill., was a surprise rookie star for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2009 and won 12 games while helping them to a second straight National League championship. He began 2010 with Philadelphia and was 1-0 in three starts before heading to Houston in the trade that sent veteran ace Roy Oswalt to the Phillies.
Happ won his first start with his new team on July 30 and is 4-2 with the Astros overall, including a complete-game gem over St. Louis on Aug. 30 in which he allowed just two hits, walked one and struck out four in a 3-0 victory.
The 27-year-old is 18-7 in 54 big-league outings.
He'll be opposed by veteran Arizona righty Rodrigo Lopez, who'll make the 194th start of a career that began with San Diego in 2000. Lopez won 15 games with Baltimore in both 2002 and 2005 and lost a league-high 18 times with the Orioles in 2006 before pitching for Colorado, Philadelphia and now the Diamondbacks since the beginning of 2007.
He and Happ were teammates with the Phillies last year, when Lopez was 3-1 in seven appearances with a 5.70 earned run average.
The 34-year-old Mexican is winless in nine starts since defeating Florida, 10-4, on July 8. In his last outing, on Aug. 29 at San Francisco, he gave up eight hits and five runs in just four innings of a 9-7 defeat.
Arizona has now won four of six meetings with the Astros this season.
<< Giants, Dodgers play rubber match at Chavez Ravine
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hiroki Kuroda nearly threw a no-hitter in his last trip to
the hill. Tonight, the Los Angeles Dodgers will settle for a win, as they
play the rubber match of their three-game set against the San Francisco Giants
at Dodgers St
<< Wilson, Rangers hope to avoid sweep in Minnesota
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hoping to avoid a series sweep at the hands of the
Minnesota Twins, the Texas Rangers may have the right pitcher on the mound
today to accomplish that goal.
C.J. Wilson will attempt to register his eighth consecutive winni
<< Jimenez holds off Molinari to win European Masters
Crans Montana, Switzerland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After nearly coughing up a six-
stroke lead, Miguel Angel Jimenez birdied the 17th hole Sunday to fend off
Ryder Cup teammate Edoardo Molinari and win the European Masters.
Jimenez closed w
<< A's try to break out the brooms on Angels
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim haven't been swept in a
series of at least three games by the Oakland Athletics in more than six
years, partly due to the success Ervin Santana has produced against the team's
American League
King Felix goes for M's in series capper with Tribe >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Felix Hernandez will attempt to atone for a recent loss to
the Cleveland Indians and help the Seattle Mariners earn a split of a four-
game series with that above-mentioned opponent when the ace pitcher toes the
rubber this a
Orioles recall Tillman to make start >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Orioles recalled pitcher Chris
Tillman to start Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Tillman last pitched in the majors on July 19, when he gave up eight runs in 2
2/3 innings to the Rays
Davies wins for third time in Austria >>
Wiener Neustadt, Austria (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Laura Davies carded a two-under 70
Sunday to earn a one-stroke win at the Uniqa Ladies Golf Open.
Davies, who won this title for the third time, finished at 11-under-par 205.
The victory was Davi
Wattel becomes second amateur winner in 2010 on Challenge Tour >>
La Wantzenau, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Amateur Romain Wattel closed with
a five-under 67 Sunday to collect a three-stroke win at the Allianz
Europen Strasbourg-Golf de la Wantzenau.
Wattel finished the event at 17-under-par 271.
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
To visit this sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting