08/27/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco Giants turn to ace Tim Lincecum in hopes of avoiding a three-game series sweep to the surging Colorado Rockies when the National League West members square off again tonight at AT&T Park.
Colorado continues to close the gap on the top two teams in the NL West and has won four straight and nine of its last 11 games following Tuesday's 7-2 decision over the Giants. With division leader Arizona losing to San Diego last night, the Rockies are now just six games behind the Diamondbacks for the top spot.
The Rockies have also excelled on the road as of late, despite the club's lackluster 27-41 record as the visitor for the season. Tuesday's triumph was Colorado's eighth in its last nine away tests.
Jorge De La Rosa and Jason Grilli combined on a five-hitter to lead the way for the Rockies last night. De La Rosa (7-7) allowed two runs -- one earned -- over the first six innings, with Grilli twirling three perfect frames to record the first save of his career.
Garrett Atkins, Troy Tulowitzki and Chris Iannetta each knocked in two runs for Colorado, while Brad Hawpe finished 2-for-2 with three walks and crossed the plate three times.
Rich Aurilia had three hits and scored twice for the Giants, who have lost two straight following a season-best five-game winning streak. Rookie starter Matt Palmer (0-2) was tagged for five runs (4 earned) and walked six batters before being lifted after 4 1/3 innings.
San Francisco will attempt to regroup tonight behind the remarkable Lincecum, who is leading the majors with 200 strikeouts at the moment and also tops all NL pitchers with a 2.48 earned run average to go along with a 14-3 record.
The All-Star righty was dominant once again in Friday's start against San Diego, firing eight shutout innings and yielding just four hits while fanning eight in San Fran's 5-0 win. Lincecum has not permitted more than two runs in any of his last six starts, having compiled a 3-0 record and a 1.50 ERA during that excellent stretch.
In his most recent start against Colorado, Lincecum struck out nine over seven scoreless frames in a hard-luck no-decision June 11 at Coors Field. The 24- year-old is 2-1 with a 3.30 ERA in five lifetime encounters with the Rockies.
Veteran Livan Hernandez makes his fourth start in a Colorado uniform tonight and will be facing a team he spent four of his 13 big league seasons with. The 33-year-old pitched for the Giants from 1999-2002 and won a personal-best 17 games with San Francisco in 2000.
Hernandez hasn't been quite so successful since joining the Rockies as a waiver claim from Minnesota earlier this month. In his three starts with Colorado, the Cuban defector is 1-2 with an astronomic 15.32 ERA. Opponents are batting a robust .424 against him over that span.
He was battered again in Friday's matchup with Cincinnati, lasting just 3 2/3 innings and surrendering six runs and eight hits in an 8-5 defeat.
Hernandez has opposed the Giants 12 times previously and owns a 3-4 record with a 2.99 ERA lifetime against San Francisco. He has yet to face the Giants this season.
Tuesday's win gave Colorado a 6-5 edge in this year's season series with San Francisco. The Rockies are now 7-4 over their last 11 battles against the Giants at AT&T Park.
<< Astros' Oswalt tries to continue ownership of Reds
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roy Oswalt must get excited when he sees the Cincinnati
Reds on the schedule, as evidenced by his career mark against them. Oswalt
will face the Reds for a third time this season when the Astros play the
second
<< Desperate Dodgers continue series in Washington
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Greg Maddux will get another shot to prove his worth for
the road-weary Los Angeles Dodgers, who resume a three-game series tonight
versus the host Washington Nationals.
Maddux joined the Dodgers last week in a tr
<< Angels, Athletics wrap series
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two American League West teams that haven't won a series in
a while get a chance to end their droughts tonight, when the Los Angeles
Angels of Anaheim play the rubber match of a three-game set with the visiting
Oakland Athlet
<< Marlins seeking quick rebound in second tilt with Braves
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - If the Florida Marlins have any plans on reaching the
postseason, playing better baseball on the road would certainly help.
Florida will resume a nine-game road trip tonight with the second test of a
three-game s
22nd-ranked Penn State opens up at home against Coastal Carolina >>
University Park, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In what figures to be a complete
mismatch, the 22nd-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions host the Coastal Carolina
Chanticleers in the season-opener for both programs at Beaver Stadium this
weekend.
Joe Pat
Defending FBS and FCS champs meet in Baton Rouge >>
Baton Rouge, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The seventh-ranked LSU Tigers are the
defending national champs, and they will begin the 2008 season by hosting the
always dangerous Appalachian State Mountaineers.
College football fans undoubtedly remembe
Mocs face uphill battle against mighty Sooners >>
Norman, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The fourth-ranked Oklahoma Sooners are
considered major contenders for the national title heading into the 2008
season, and they are heavily favored in Saturday's opener against the
Chattanooga Mocs.
Last seaso
Top-25 foes kick off 2008 season in Atlanta >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The ninth-ranked Clemson Tigers begin the 2008
season in unfamiliar territory, as they are the favorite to win the ACC ands
earn at the very least a BCS bowl bid. Those lofty expectations will be put to
the test r
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 | Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting