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07/30/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After struggling badly during one of their most challenging stretches of the season, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim now find themselves faced with what could be a make-or-break three-game series with the Texas Rangers that begins this evening at Angel Stadium.
The three-time defending division champion Angels trailed the Rangers by five games for first place in the American League West when they entered a critical 12-game sequence against the New York Yankees, Texas and Boston on July 20. That deficit has since grown, as Anaheim has lost seven of the first nine tests of this portion of the schedule and enters tonight's showdown mired in a four-game losing streak.
With the Rangers defeating Oakland last night, Texas now holds a comfortable nine-game advantage on the third-place Angels in the division standings.
The Angels could have an even tougher climb after the team sustained a key injury prior to Wednesday's game with the Red Sox. Starting pitcher Joel Pineiro suffered a left oblique strain while warming up prior to the contest, and the 10-game winner is expected to be sidelined between six-to-eight weeks.
"Halfway through my warmup I threw a curveball and it felt like a cramp," said Pineiro. "Just a freak thing to happen, I can't explain it. It's really frustrating and when I heard how long I'll be out, my heart sunk to the ground."
With Pineiro unavailable, Boston completed a three-game series sweep with a 7-3 victory on Wednesday, with Marco Scutaro belting a tie-breaking grand slam off reliever Fernando Rodney in the top of the eighth inning.
Scot Shields made an emergency start in Pineiro's place and allowed a pair of runs in just 1 2/3 innings, but relievers Francisco Rodriguez and Rich Thompson combined for five frames of one-run ball to keep the Angels in the game. The Red Sox loaded the bases against Rodney (4-1) with none out in the eighth, however, and Scutaro smacked a 1-2 pitch just inside the left-field foul pole to break a 3-3 deadlock.
Reggie Willits went 2-for-3 with an RBI single for Anaheim, which had lost three of four bouts with the Rangers in Texas prior to the Boston series.
The Angels' lone victory in the Texas series came with Ervin Santana on the mound, and the hard-throwing right-hander will attempt to duplicate last Saturday's effort when he takes the ball this evening. The 2008 AL All-Star delivered eight excellent innings in Anaheim's 6-2 win that night, yielding solo homers to Michael Young and Nelson Cruz and just five hits total while striking out eight.
Santana also fired a seven-hit shutout against the Rangers last September in Anaheim and owns a 9-6 record in 17 career starts versus tonight's opponent, although he's registered a suspect 5.77 earned run average over the course of those games.
The native Dominican comes into tonight's clash having worked at least seven innings in four straight starts and has posted a 2.30 ERA during that solid stretch. Santana is just 1-2 over that span, however, as the Angels have scored two runs or less in three of the four games.
Santana may have to be on top of his game again tonight, with the Rangers slated to send out the still-unbeaten Tommy Hunter. The surprising young righty ran his season record to 8-0 in Sunday's 6-4 win over the Angels, a game in which he surrendered three runs on only three hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Hunter fired seven shutout innings and allowed just three hits in his previous start, an 8-0 besting of Detroit on July 20, and has registered an excellent 2.31 ERA in 10 games since joining the Texas rotation in early June. He's also the only pitcher in Rangers history to win his first eight decisions in a season.
The 24-year-old will be out to atone for one of the worst showings of his big league career when he toes the rubber tonight. Against the Angels in Anaheim last September, Hunter was tagged for seven runs (six earned) and seven hits before exiting after 2 1/3 innings of an 11-0 loss. In three lifetime starts versus the Halos, the Alabama product is 1-2 with a 7.24 ERA.
Texas extended its lead in the division by winning two of three tilts with second-place Oakland earlier in the week, including a 7-4 triumph in Thursday's rubber match. Michael Young went 4-for-4 with three runs scored to pace the Rangers' 14-hit attack, while teammate Josh Hamilton collected three hits to raise his AL-leading average to .362.
Taylor Teagarden added a two-run homer and David Murphy had a solo shot to help the Rangers record their 10th victory in their last 14 games. Ex-Angel Vladimir Guerrero also knocked in two runs on the evening.
Texas outfielder Nelson Cruz contributed an RBI single to Thursday's win and extended his hitting streak to 17 games. The standout slugger is batting .400 (28-for-70) with three homers and 17 RBI during his career-best tear.
The Rangers added another proven bat to their already-potent offense prior to last night's game, acquiring infielder Jorge Cantu from Florida in exchange for a pair of minor league pitchers. The 28-year-old, who hit .262 with 10 homers and 54 RBI for the Marlins this season, is expected to serve as Texas' primary first baseman.
Texas has prevailed in six of the nine previous meetings between these AL West rivals, but is just 2-5 in its last seven visits to Angel Stadium.
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Two playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count.
New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend.
His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates.
HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game.
The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup.
RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day.
First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08.
The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition.
These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years.
New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5.
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Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."
When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules.
The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.
The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.
“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”
The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.
“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”
The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.
“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”
Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.
“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."
So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?
“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.
Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.
Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.
Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.
“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.
Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.
The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.
“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.
Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.
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