Sunshine State foes resume set at the Trop

Baseball Betting Lines

06/12/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Sunshine State warms up with the second of a three-game interleague set between the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field tonight.

Despite being just three games over .500 at home so far this season, the Rays continue to sport the best record in all of baseball and are currently a game ahead of the New York Yankees for first place in the American League East. However, the Rays have gone from enjoying a three-game win streak to losing back-to-back outings after falling to Florida on Friday night, 14-9.

While Tampa managed to post nine runs, the final score was not a clear indication of how much the Marlins dominated the meeting. Florida, now 4 1/2 games out of first place in the National League East thanks to a two-game win streak, registered a total of nine runs between the third and fourth innings alone, leaving the Rays to play catch-up the rest of the way.

Gaby Sanchez cracked a pair of home runs and knocked in a total of six for the Marlins, a monster effort on his part given that he has but nine home runs and 32 RBI for his entire major league career thus far. Also having a strong game for the visitors was Chris Coghlan who logged four hits and a pair of walks, resulting in four runs scored. Cody Ross and Mike Stanton accounted for two hits apiece and a combined five RBI.

"Everything just seemed to bounce right for us," Coghlan said of his team's offensive explosion. "Everything went well, and also when we hit the ball hard, we got hits that way, too. I thought we did a great job scoring early and often."

Anibal Sanchez worked his way through seven innings for the Marlins, the starter giving up four earned runs on seven hits and three walks, while striking out four in his sixth win of the campaign.

Tampa starter James Shields didn't stand a chance against the Florida bats, permitting an unsightly 10 runs on nine hits and three walks over 3 1/3 innings of work. Carlos Pena, owner of the only home run of the game for the hosts, had three hits altogether and scored four of his team's nine runs. Hank Blalock chipped in another three hits, scored twice and knocked in a pair as well.

Having shown he can dominate Florida batters in previous meetings, Matt Garza stands as the starter for the Rays tonight. Garza, who has a record of 2-0 and a slim 1.13 ERA in 16 previous innings versus Florida, snapped a personal three-game slide on Sunday when he and the Rays logged a 9-5 win over Texas on the road in Arlington.

In that contest the right-hander allowed four runs on six hits and a pair of walks, fanning four over the course of 5 2/3 innings and yet his season ERA still jumped up to 3.31.

Heading to the hill for the visiting Marlins is Ricky Nolasco. The right- hander, who already has a career 2-1 mark against Tampa Bay, has won just one of his previous four starts. On Sunday the hurler gave up three runs on eight hits and three walks, while striking out just two over 5 1/3 innings against the New York Mets in a decision that failed to earn him a decision.

While he had a bit of a control problem versus the Mets, Nolasco has delivered almost four times as many K's (54) than walks (15) so far in 2010.

Even though he was taken out of Friday's contest, Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria remains one of the hottest players in the majors, thanks to an eight-game hit streak and having reached base in 29 straight games, the longest active streak in the major leagues. In his last 22 at-bats alone, Longoria has 10 hits and is batting a staggering .455. As a unit, the Rays are hitting a robust .290 over the last six contests.

Over on the Marlins side, Sanchez is hitting .381 in the last five games, accounting for seven RBI and three of his team's seven home runs during the span.

Despite last night's setback, the Rays have still won 12 of the 15 meetings between the in-state rivals since June of 2007.

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Online Sportsbook Football Betting

Colts give the ‘D’ its due

The Indianapolis Colts know that winning the Super Bowl last season put a huge target on their backs, and they expect opponents to go all-out to knock them from the top of the mountain.

They’ll get their first test from the New Orleans Saints this Thursday night. The defending champs had nothing but good things to say about the New Orleans defense this past week, praising their opponents’ pass rush and run-stopping abilities.

"They play very aggressively," head coach Tony Dungy told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "They play a lot of man-to-man coverage, and they come after you. They have good pass rushers, and they're going to try to pressure us, I'm sure."

Both center Jeff Saturday and quarterback Peyton Manning gave New Orleans’ front four props, admitting keeping guys like Will Smithand Charles Grant contained would be a tall task for the offensive line.

New Orleans ranked second in total defense during the preseason at a sportsbook, allowing just under 233 yards per game. Last season, the defense finished 11th in the league after giving up 307.3 yards and 20.1 points per contest.

Not so sound on the ground

If Indianapolis' efficient offense has a weakness it has to be its running attack. The Colts one-two-punch of Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai is no longer, leaving the bulk of the carries to Addai, the second-year back out of LSU.

Former Saskatchewan Roughrider Kenton Keith was named Addai’s backup this week after beating out DeDe Dorsey for the second-string position. Indy has only three backs on the roster right now, including fullback Luke Lawton, and coach Dungy is aware of the thinness of his ground game. Sports Betting lines on the game can be found at BettingExpress.com

“We’ll continue to look. Luke Lawton’s done a good job for us too. So probably getting a third true tailback is something that we’d like to do,” Dungy told the Indiana Tribune-Star.

Last season, Addai rushed for over 1,000 yards in his rookie campaign and scored seven touchdowns on the ground.

Brees says bring it on

Opening the season on the road against the defending Super Bowl champions is not the way most teams would like to kick off their year – unless you’re the New Orleans Saints or their quarterback Drew Brees. This internet Sportsbooks had the Saints as the favorites.

Brees told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he is excited to get the regular season started and the Colts are a great challenge for him and his teammates. The 28-year-old QB, entering his second season with the Saints, is expecting a wild environment in the RCA Dome this Thursday when the franchise celebrates its 2007-2007 championship.

Brees said he sees the opening game scheduling as an honor and a testament to how well New Orleans did last season. The Saints missed facing the Colts in the Super Bowl by one game, losing to the Chicago Bearsin the NFC Championship game.

"I mean, people think we can hang with these guys," Brees told reporters. "Even if they didn't, it wouldn't matter what they thought because as a team we're very confident. We know what we can do. We're not satisfied where we finished the season last year. And we've been looking forward to this opportunity for a long time."

SportsBooks ready for a shootout

Oddsmakers are preparing for some fireworks this Thursday when the NFL season kicks off. online Sportsbooks have Thursday’s total set at a whopping 52 points, accounting for two of the league’s most explosive offenses.

“This is like must-see TV,” Saints cornerback and former Colt Jason David told the Baton Rouge Advocate. “It’s two exciting offenses with great players. You’ve got a lot of star power on offense. At any given time a big play can happen. If I was a fan, I wouldn’t miss a snap.”

New Orleans, who ranked No.1 in total offense last season, can go blow-for-blow with the Colts’ attack. Head coach Sean Payton’s offensive schemes will get even better production out of Drew Brees, Reggie Bush and receiver Marques Colston now that they’ve each had a season of playing together under their belts.

The Saints and Colts were the top two passing teams in the NFL last year, but while Indianapolis managed to put up almost 27 points per game, New Orleans struggled to capitalize on their efforts. The Saints ranked fifth in points per game.

“Yards are great,” running backDeuce McAllister told reporters, “but to be able to score more touchdowns would be important for us.”

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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