Rays resume playoff push in second test with Orioles

Baseball Betting Lines

09/04/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Rays own the best road record of any team in the majors this season, in part due to their success at Baltimore's Camden Yards. The postseason contenders will have their sights set on another victory over the homestanding Orioles when the two American League East foes continue a three-game series this evening.

Tampa Bay improved to 40-25 on the road and 6-1 at Camden Yards in 2010 by virtue of last night's 4-1 triumph. The victory, the fifth in the last six games for the Rays, kept Joe Maddon's club 1 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees in the race for home-field advantage throughout the upcoming AL Playoffs as well as first place in the league's East Division.

Matt Garza (14-7) continued his own dominance of the Orioles in Friday's opener, with the Tampa hurler yielding one run over the first 5 2/3 innings to notch his 14th win of the season. Garza moved to 9-1 lifetime against Baltimore and 6-0 in eight starts at Camden Yards.

"He really utilized his changeup," Maddon said of Garza. "He was throwing it on some really odd counts, 2-2, 3-2 pitches, which prevented [the Orioles] from just sitting hard and I think that was the big difference [Friday]."

Carl Crawford paced the Rays offensively with three hits, including an RBI single in the top of the third that knocked in the game's first run. Reid Brignac finished 2-for-4 with a run-scoring base hit of his own for Tampa Bay, now 10-3 against the bottom-feeding Orioles so far this season.

Baltimore's Kevin Millwood (3-15) became the majors' first 15-game loser of the year after the veteran righty was reached for four runs and issued five walks in a 5 2/3-inning stint.

"Any time you walk five guys and hit a guy against a team like that, you're going to struggle to win," Millwood said afterward.

The Orioles have now dropped three in a row following a four-game winning streak and will call upon Jeremy Guthrie to end the team's skid. If the right- hander is able to duplicate the line of his most recent start, Baltimore should have a good chance of doing so.

Guthrie limited the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to four hits and a walk over 8 1/3 shutout innings to lead the O's to a 1-0 verdict this past Sunday. The effort continued a strong second half for the former first-round draft choice, as he's now 5-2 with an excellent 2.51 earned run average in nine outings following the All-Star break.

The 31-year-old also shut down the Rays in a matchup in St. Petersburg last month, surrendering a mere two hits over six scoreless innings in Baltimore's 5-0 win on August 13. Guthrie did struggle in two subsequent starts, allowing 12 runs (11 earned) over a combined 14 2/3 innings to suffer back-to-back defeats to Seattle and the Chicago White Sox, before rebounding with last weekend's gem.

For his career, Guthrie is 4-7 with a 4.28 ERA in 14 appearances (12 starts) versus Tampa Bay.

James Shields draws the assignment for the Rays tonight and has also put together a nice second-half surge. The durable righty has won six of eight decisions since the break and enters this contest riding a three-start winning streak.

Shields has pitched to a 2.75 ERA and fanned 24 batters in 19 2/3 innings over the course of his unbeaten stretch, which came after he was outdueled by Guthrie in that August 13 clash with the Orioles. In that game, the 28-year- old was tagged for four runs and 10 hits in only five frames.

In his latest start, Shields permitted three runs and struck out eight through 6 2/3 innings to defeat Boston on Sunday, six days after he registered 10 punchouts and tossed six innings of three-run ball (two earned) in a road win over the Angels.

Shields does sport a 7-3 record with a 3.32 ERA in 18 career encounters with the Orioles and has never lost at Camden Yards, having amassed a 4-0 mark with a 3.04 ERA in eight overall starts at the venue.

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Pro Football Odds : NFC SOUTH BETTING ODDS

NFL Sports Betting

NFL betting action is back! At MySportsbook, all of the pro football odds are posted for the NFC North. Check out how we see the four teams in this cloudy division stacking up this year in the chase for the playoffs! Green Bay Packers (+125) - With QB Aaron Rodgers leading the offense and DC Dom Capers working his magic on defense, the Packers are a real force to be reckoned with.

Virtually nothing changed on this offense for Green Bay from last year to this year, save for the addition of rookie OT Brian Bulaga to the bunch. Expect more huge numbers from the Pack, and a relatively favorable schedule should get them over the hump and into the playoffs once again this season. My NFL Betting Predictions: 11-5, 1st place in NFC North Minnesota Vikings (+130) - There are still too many unknowns about the Vikes this year. There is a huge difference between QB Brett Favre and either Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels under center. Plus, is Favre comes back, is he really going to be able to keep his pick total under double digits again? Depth at running back looked like it might have been an issue with RB Chester Taylor fleeing in free agency, but drafting RB Toby Gerhart should pick up the difference. This defense is still suitable, but with a first place schedule, making the playoffs is going to be very tough regardless of whether #4 comes back or not.

There is a huge difference between QB Brett Favre and either Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels under center. Plus, is Favre comes back, is he really going to be able to keep his pick total under double digits again? Depth at running back looked like it might have been an issue with RB Chester Taylor fleeing in free agency, but drafting RB Toby Gerhart should pick up the difference. This defense is still suitable, but with a first place schedule, making the playoffs is going to be very tough regardless of whether #4 comes back or not. Play this weekly NFL Football Contestto see if you can win.

Chicago Bears (+350) - The Bears are probably a bit of an overhyped team once again this year.No, we don't think it is plausible for QB Jay Cutler to have as bad of a season as he did last year, and we do think the additions of RB Chester Taylor and DE Julius Peppers are going to help immensely, but there's still something in the water in the Windy City that we aren't so sure about. Maybe Chicago finds its way to .500... but then again, maybe it doesn't. If Favre comes back, Cutler might be the worst quarterback in this division this year.

Detroit Lions (+1500) - The Lions are probably once again going to be the whipping boys for the rest of the teams in the NFC North, but they aren't just going to roll over and die once again. There is some real talent amassing on this team offensively, as the combination of QB Matt Stafford, RB Jahvid Best, WR Calvin Johnson, and TE Brandon Pettigrew should put a bunch of points on the board if the offensive line can even remotely hold up. The questions really lie on defense, where it feels like DT Ndamukong Suh is going to be trying to stop opposing teams all by himself. This year should show some marked improvement in the Motor City.

The Patriots will make NFL betting fans a lot of money this season, get in early and enjoy the cash.

NFL Betting

To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your NFL football betting needs.

Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com

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