Braden faces Angels in first start since perfecto
Baseball Betting Lines
05/14/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Now that the dust has settled on the 19th perfect game in Major League history and all the television appearances have subsided, Oakland Athletics starter Dallas Braden will get back to work tonight in the opener of a three-game road series versus the rival LA Angels of Anaheim.
Braden tossed the second perfect game in the history of the Athletics last Sunday in a 4-0 win against the Tampa Bay Rays at the Coliseum. He struck out six batters and became the first A's pitcher to record a perfect game since Jim "Catfish" Hunter accomplished the feat on May 8, 1968 against Minnesota. Braden's perfect game was the 14th no-hitter in the history of the franchise and first since Dave Stewart turned the trick on June 29, 1990 at Toronto.
The left-handed Braden needed just 109 pitches to complete the remarkable performance and is the first pitcher to throw a perfect game since Mark Buehrle tossed one for the Chicago White Sox on July 23, 2009. Braden is also the second pitcher this season to throw a no-hitter in the majors, as Colorado ace Ubaldo Jimenez no-hit the Atlanta Braves on April 17. Johnny Vander Meer is the only pitcher in history to throw no-hitters in consecutive starts.
Braden is 4-2 with a 3.33 ERA in seven 2010 starts and ended a personal two- game losing streak against the Rays. He beat the Angels on April 11 by holding them to three runs in six innings of a 9-4 victory. Braden is 2-3 in 10 career games, six of which have been starts, against Anaheim.
Oakland dropped the last two portions of its three-game series at Texas earlier in the week and suffered a 2-1 loss in 12 innings in yesterday's finale. Vladimir Guerrero drove in Michael Young in the bottom of the 12th off of A's closer Andrew Bailey to lead the Rangers.
"I just missed my spot," Bailey said on the team's site. "That's when you go back to the drawing board and come back out there the next day."
Jake Fox had three hits and Josh Donaldson knocked in the lone run for Oakland, which got six innings of one-run ball and eight strikeouts from starter Ben Sheets.
The Athletics had won three in a row and five of six games prior to their two straight losses to Texas. They are now two games behind the Rangers for the lead in the American League West division.
Meanwhile, the Angels have been struggling lately and are coming off consecutive losses versus the Rays after winning Monday's series opener. In Wednesday's 4-3 setback at the Big A, Anaheim starter Jered Weaver fanned a career-high 12 batters but came out on the losing end, as he gave up six hits and four runs -- one earned -- over seven innings.
"I tried to keep my team in the game and I did that," Weaver said. "The 12 strikeouts would have looked a lot better if we won the game, 4-3."
Howie Kendrick ended with three hits and drove in a run for the Angels, who lost for the 10th time in 13 tries.
The Angels, who are a game ahead of last-place Seattle in the AL West, will send Joe Saunders to the mound Friday night. Saunders lost his first two starts of the season before winning his only game so far in 2010, when he allowed two unearned runs in eight innings at Toronto on April 17.
Since then he's 0-3 with an 8.31 earned run average in four starts and last took the hill in a 4-3 Angels' victory at Seattle last Saturday. Saunders did not record a decision and gave up three runs -- one earned -- in 5 2/3 innings of work. He lost to Oakland back on April 11, when he was reached for four runs in six innings of a 9-4 defeat to Braden.
In 15 career starts against the Athletics, Saunders is a solid 9-4 with a 4.13 earned run average.
Oakland won two of three meetings with Anaheim back in early April, but the Angels are 12-7 in the last 19 matchups between the division foes.
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FOOTBALL BETTING LINES
NFL Football Sports BettingTwo 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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Horse Betting
(This is an update of a sportsbook for the May 4th issue of ESPN The Magazine).
The Kentucky Derby's post-position draw happened on Wednesday. And, as is always the case, shortly afterwards, a buzz raced around Churchill Downs. It was a low rumble at first, nothing that the squares in the mint julep crowd pick up right away. But by the time the sun set over the twin spires, the chatter was impossible to ignore. Everyone -- sharps, trainers, owners -- was talking about one thing: the wise guy horse, the pre-draw long shot us mopes didn't have on our radar until it was too late.
"You think you're hearing the scoop," says handicapper Lane Gold. "Then you get to the window, the odds are short, and you missed it."
Recognizing a wise-guy horse early is as hard as picking a Derby bonnet. That's because handicappers don't like hype (see ya, I Want Revenge). They want Thoroughbreds who look good losing prep races like the Santa Anita Derby. They eye horses who ate up the field after starting wide or made an easy transition from synthetic tracks to dirt. They look for ponies who showed muscle gain race to race and those who ran hard after several weeks' rest.
"A wise guy," says John Avello, a bookmaker at Wynn Las Vegas, "looks for a horse who can improve."
When I first wrote Horse Betting for The Mag, which I turned in a three weeks before Wednesday's draw, I predicted these three horses had wise guy potential:
CHOCOLATE CANDY (15-1 in mid-April, currently 20-1 according to Avello): His second-place finish at Santa Anita, following a seven-week layoff, proved two things: He can run after resting, and -- by losing a high-profile prep race -- he wouldn't be overhyped.
DESERT PARTY (15-1; 15-1): He was upset in the UAE Derby by a horse he had beaten twice. The public remembers his loss, but the wise guys his wins.
PIONEEROF THE NILE (8-1; 4-1): The big favorite at Santa Anita struggled to win, so he initially got less hype than Quality Road and I Want Revenge.
You may have noticed that the odds on Pioneerof the Nile have been cut in half, from 8-1 to 4-1. Which means the wise guys took a shine to him long before the post-position draw. But, to be honest, this is one of those years with four elite horses getting everyone's attention, squares and sharps alike.
"You're not gonna get a lot of chatter about a horse that isn't in that group, which includes Pioneer, I Want Revenge, Dunkirk and Friesan Fire," Avello told me Wednesday. "We don't have a group of horses behind those top four who look like real legit contenders."
Come Derby week, the final two elements in picking a wise guy horse are how he's working out and what gate he's coming out of.
(By the way, picking a Preakness favorite is a whole different bale of hay, partially based on how horses finish in the Derby. You can see my analysis of who has the best shot at Pimlico on Insider Sunday morning.)
Well, early in the week I Want Revenge, Pioneerof the Nile and Friesan Fire were working out better than anyone. Some thought Friesan Fire, currently 6-1, might have run too fast, burning a five-furlong run in :57 4/5. "When you are running that fast you have the sense that it took something out of him," says Gold. "The Derby is longer than any horse has run, and if they need that extra surge you worry they won't have it because they burned it in the workout."
But, Gold points out, Friesan Fire's trainer is Larry Jones, Two years ago his horse Hard Spun did a five-eighths workout in :57 3/5 and then went on to finish second, behind Street Sense, in the Derby. "Every trainer has different methods," says Gold. "And clearly he knows what he's doing."
Now, as for starting position, Gold says to remember this: Churchill Downs traditionally has 14 starting gates. For the Derby, it brings out auxiliary gates and between the original 14th gate and the new 15th gate, there is a little more space than there is between gates 1-14. "That 15 position will give you a precious second or two to sort out what's happening to your inside," says Gold. "Sixteen is also okay because you can follow the horse in front of you."
Dunkirk, one of the race favorites, is coming out of gate 15. In 16 is Baffert's Pioneerof the Nile. I Want Revenge drew 13, where Smarty Jones won from in 2004, and Friesan Fire picked the sixth position. "He doesn't have a lot of speed to the inside of him," says Gold. "So he will get a clear shot to be near the front."
All the jibber-jabber means this: Pioneerof the Nile has leapfrogged from 8-1 to being the second favorite, along with Dunkirk, behind I Want Revenge. Meanwhile, Friesan Fire, with a good trainer, a strong week of training and a decent post position, is still at 6-1. "By Saturday, it's possible he could go from fourth to the favorite," says Gold.
In other words, meet Friesan Fire, your 2009 wise guy horse.
"Now," says Avello, "it's time for action."
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