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08/01/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox are set for the rubber match of their three-game weekend series at Fenway Park this afternoon.
Detroit (AL Central) and Boston (AL East) are both in third place in their respective divisions and have to be considered long shots to challenge for a title this year.
The Tigers will send ace Justin Verlander to the hill this evening, and he owns an impressive 12-6 record with a 3.74 ERA. Verlander pitched fairly well against Tampa on Tuesday, allowing three earned runs on five hits in eight innings, but he was handed the loss in that road affair. The veteran righty has 130 strikeouts in 137 1/3 innings.
Verlander has yet to face Boston this season and is 2-2 lifetime against the Red Sox with a 3.90 ERA.
Slated to oppose Verlander is Clay Buchholz, the young Boston right-hander who has been one of the team's best players to date. Buchholz is 11-5 with a 2.71 ERA and allowed just one earned run in seven innings of a victory over the Angels on Monday. He has one complete game in 17 appearances this year.
Buchholz is 1-0 against Detroit this season and 1-1 lifetime against the Tigers in three games.
David Ortiz provided some late-game dramatics yet again on Saturday, belting a game-winning three-run double in the ninth inning to lift the Red Sox to a 5-4 victory over the Tigers.
Ryan Perry, who came into the game for the Tigers in the seventh, began the ninth by allowing a leadoff single to Darnell McDonald and was lifted in favor of Phil Coke (6-2).
Coke was able to induce a fly out from Marco Scutaro, but Jed Lowrie followed with a pinch-hit double to send McDonald to third. After intentionally walking Kevin Youkilis to load the bases, Ortiz blasted a double to deep center to plate all three runners and win the game.
Ortiz's hit comes one game after his ninth-inning grand slam nearly gave Boston another comeback win, falling just one run short in Friday's 6-5 defeat in the series opener. The rally made a winner of Hideki Okajima (4-3), who threw one scoreless frame.
Ryan Kalish, making his major league debut, added two hits, an RBI and a run scored for the Red Sox, who have won six of nine but finished July at a mediocre 12-13. McDonald finished 2-for-4 with an RBI in the win.
"I just never felt this much energy in a stadium," Kalish said. "This is Fenway Park, this has been around forever. A three-run walk-off double is something that -- you watch on TV with all those guys freaking out, and I was one of those guys freaking out today. It was a lot of fun."
Miguel Cabrera clubbed his 26th home run of the season for the Tigers, who have lost five of six. Max Scherzer was denied the win despite allowing just one run on nine hits and a walk while fanning three in 6 1/3 frames.
"It was a very good ball game. Scherzer pitched extremely well, really very, very well," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland. "We were a little hamstrung today. Last night's bullpen situation really took a toll on today's game."
Boston has won 12 of its last 17 overall versus Detroit.
<< Takayama cruises to victory in Japan
Hokkaido, Japan (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tadahiro Takayama closed with a two-under
70 Sunday to cruise to a three-stroke win at the Sun Chlorella Classic.
Takayama finished at 17-under-par 271 to collect his third Japan Tour title.
Dinesh Cha
<< Almagro titles in Gstaad
Gstaad, Switzerland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nicolas Almagro of Spain beat France's
Richard Gasquet 7-5, 6-1 to capture the title at the Swiss Open Gstaad.
The second-seeded Almagro fired 17 aces en route to his seventh career title
and second
<< Siddikur a playoff winner in Brunei
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Siddikur parred the first extra
hole Sunday to defeat Jbe Kruger and win the Brunei Open.
Siddikur had closed with a four-under 67, while Kruger posted a five-under 66.
They finished at 16-under
<< Earl Thomas in fold for Seahawks
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Seattle Seahawks have reportedly come to
terms with first-round draft pick safety Earl Thomas on a five-year contract.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer reported Thomas, the 14th overall pick out of
Texas, wil
Nationals aim for rare sweep of Phillies >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Phillies won a season-high eight straight games
entering their weekend set with the Nationals and it didn't seem likely they
were going to slow down against the last-place team.
However, Washington will be going for it
Reds send Volquez to the hill to take on Braves >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former staff ace Edinson Volquez makes his fourth start in
a return from ligament replacement surgery today when the Cincinnati Reds
close out a three-game series with the visiting Atlanta Braves at Great
American Ball Park.
Hudson to make Diamondbacks debut against Mets >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Right-hander Daniel Hudson takes the mound for the first
time as a National Leaguer today when his new team -- the Arizona Diamondbacks
-- visits New York for the finale of a three-game weekend series with the Mets
at Citi Fi
New-look Astros seek sweep of struggling Brewers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Despite trading away two of their top players, the Houston
Astros find themselves in position to do something they haven't done all
season; win five games in a row.
The Astros will try to do just that this afternoon when t
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.
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