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
07/26/2010 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pinch-hitter Jim Edmonds belted the tie- breaking home run off Bronson Arroyo with two outs in the eighth inning, as Milwaukee edged Cincinnati, 3-2, at Miller Park.
The Brewers, winners of five in a row, had just three hits in the opener of the three-game set, but one was a titanic two-run blast off the bat of Rickie Weeks in the third inning. Starting pitcher Randy Wolf had the other hit, a single just before Weeks' homer off a Miller Lite sign beyond the wall in center field.
Laynce Nix made a costly base-running mistake in the ninth inning, as the Reds suffered their second straight defeat. They also had a six-game winning streak against the Brewers broken.
Wolf allowed five hits and two runs over seven innings. Carlos Villanueva (1-0) pitched the eighth inning to get the win and John Axford survived the ninth for his 15th save.
"Wolf didn't have hit control early and we let him get away," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "You hate to lose a game like that when Bronson was pitching so well."
Arroyo (10-6) pitched his second complete game of the season and 11th of his career. He walked one and fanned five batters, but dropped his second straight start.
Scott Rolen returned to the lineup for the Reds. The third baseman hadn't played since July 16 due to a right hamstring injury. He was hit by a pitch and scored once.
Edmonds pinch-hit for Villanueva in the eighth and sent a 1-2 offering barely foul down the right field line, home run distance. The next pitch was a no- doubter, a blast to the stands beyond the wall in right-center for his eighth homer of the year.
"Obviously coming off the bench isn't the greatest, but I could run only about 20 percent, so I didn't think I was even going to play tonight," Edmonds said. "We're a long way from first place, but it's nice to get a win. It's going to be an uphill battle for us."
Nix clubbed a pinch-hit double to center with one out in the ninth. Ryan Hanigan was up next and hit a bouncer to third base. Nix was caught between bases and tagged out as Hanigan reached safely. Pinch-hitter Chris Heisey then struck out swinging to end the game.
The Reds loaded the bases with nobody out in the second inning. Drew Stubbs struck out, but Hanigan singled to left for a 2-0 game. Arroyo struck out and Orlando Cabrera grounded out to keep two runners in scoring position.
Arroyo was dominant most of the night, except for the third inning. Wolf singled to left with two outs and Weeks crushed an 0-1 pitch for his 21st homer of the season.
Jonny Gomes singled and stole second in the sixth, but Stubbs flied out to right to end the inning.
The Reds wasted a lead-off walk by Brandon Phillips in the eighth.
Game Notes
Arroyo fell to 9-7 lifetime against the Brewers...Edmonds is 10 homers shy of 400 for his career...Gomes had three of Cincinnati's six hits...The Brewers have homered in 15 straight games, the longest stretch for the team since July 1-24, when they did it in a franchise-record 20 straight games.
<< White Sox stretch home win streak to eight
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - John Danks tossed eight innings of one-run
ball, and Juan Pierre went 3-for-5 with a run scored and two RBI, as the
White Sox returned to U.S. Cellular Field with a 6-1 win over Seattle.
Chicago, com
<< Cubs' catcher Soto leaves game in Houston
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chicago Cubs catcher Geovany Soto left
Monday's game against the Astros with a bruised left foot.
Soto grounded out to lead off the top of the sixth but did not come out to
take his position defe
<< Garza gets Rays' first no-hitter by blanking Tigers
St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Garza tossed the first no-hitter in
Tampa Bay history in a 5-0 win over Detroit in the opener of a four-game set
at Tropicana Field.
Garza (11-5) walked one, struck out six and faced the minimum
<< Blue Jays continue domination of O's
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jose Bautista hit a three-run homer and Aaron
Hill added a two-run shot and knocked in three, as the Toronto Blue Jays
earned a 9-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles in the first of a three-game set
at Roge
Mauer, Valencia highlight Twins' demolition of Royals >>
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Joe Mauer went 5-for-5 with a career-high
seven RBI and Danny Valencia hit a grand slam for his first career home run,
as the Twins pounded Kansas City, 19-1, in the opener of a three-game series.
Valen
Haren exits early in Angels debut >>
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dan Haren left his Angels debut in the fifth
inning after taking a line drive off his pitching arm by Boston's Kevin
Youkilis.
Haren, acquired by Los Angeles on Sunday in a trade with the Diamondbacks, got
two
EverBank buying naming rights to Jaguars' stadium >>
Jacksonville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jacksonville Municipal Stadium is expected
to get a new designation as EverBank is reportedly entering into a five-year
agreement for exclusive naming rights.
The Florida Times-Union reports the Jaguars
Gulbis, Tipsarevic open with wins in LA >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ernests Gulbis and Janko Tipsarevic were a
pair of seeded winners Monday in first-round play at the $700,000 Farmers
Classic tennis event.
The fifth-seeded Latvian Gulbis notched a 7-5, 7-5 win ove
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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