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05/03/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Stavinoha belted a tie-breaking pinch-hit home run in the seventh, and reigning NL Player of the Week David Freese added a three-run double, as the St. Louis Cardinals spoiled Joe Blanton's return to the mound in a 6-3 win over the Phillies.
Freese went 2-for-5 and scored a run for the Cardinals, who have won eight of nine thanks to some strong pitching. Jaime Garcia (3-1) threw St. Louis' 12th straight quality start by allowing one run, three hits and four walks in six frames. The stretch is the longest in team history since 1973, when its pitchers threw 14 such games in a row.
Colby Rasmus added three hits and two RBI in the win, while Matt Holliday hit two doubles and scored twice in this opener of a four-game series.
Jayson Werth and Chase Utley each hit a solo homer for the Phillies, whose offense was shut down after scoring 21 runs in the last two games -- both wins. Blanton (0-1), who sat out the first month with an oblique strain, gave up four runs on 10 hits and a walk while fanning four over 6 2/3 innings.
With the game tied, 1-1, entering the seventh inning, the Cardinals grabbed the lead on Stavinoha's pinch-hit leadoff shot to left.
After allowing two singles, the second with two outs, Blanton was pulled in favor of Nelson Figueroa, who intentionally walked Holliday before giving up a three-run double to Freese.
Rasmus followed with a bloop RBI single to make it a 6-1 St. Louis lead.
Werth's homer leading off the bottom of the seventh and Utley's shot to start the ninth accounted for the final margin.
Holliday led off the top of the second with a double, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Rasmus' sacrifice fly to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
The Cardinals looked to increase their lead in the fifth but caught an unlucky break. Brendan Ryan, batting ninth, tripled to the gap in right-center leading off. Third baseman Placido Polanco held the tag on him during the slide into the base, and Ryan was out after the umpire ruled his hand came off the base.
Blanton retired the next two batters to get out of the inning, and the Phillies followed by tying the game in the home half.
Werth led off with a double and moved to third on Raul Ibanez's bloop single to center. Juan Castro lofted a sacrifice fly to right, and Carlos Ruiz drew a walk. Blanton put down a bunt that catcher Yadier Molina grabbed and fired to third for the out. Freese gunned it to first, and the throw sailed past the base, allowing Ibanez to score. However, the umpire ruled that Blanton interfered with Skip Schumaker's ability to make the play at first and was out, ending the inning with the score tied, 1-1.
St. Louis put runners on first and third with two outs in the sixth, but Molina's swinging bunt was dug out by Ruiz, who threw to first for the out.
Game Notes
Garcia struck out six in the win...Blanton suffered his first career loss to St. Louis, having been 3-0 with a 1.71 earned run average coming in...The Phillies are 2-5 against left-handed starters this season after going 29-16 last year...Phillies manager Charlie Manuel was ejected for arguing the Blanton interference call in the fifth...Werth has reached base safely in 25 straight games to open the season, the longest streak in team history in the "live ball era" (1920)...Garcia has gone at least six innings in each of his five starts.
<< Cecil takes perfect game into seventh; Toronto downs Indians
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brett Cecil took a perfect game into the
seventh inning and Jose Bautista hit a two-run homer, as the Toronto Blue Jays
earned a 5-1 win over the Cleveland Indians in the opener of a three-game
series
<< Winn, Sabathia guide Yanks past Orioles
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Randy Winn provided some rare power with a three-
run homer and CC Sabathia threw eight strong innings, as the New York Yankees
took a 4-1 win over Baltimore in the opener of a three-game set.
Sabathia (4-1) pi
<< Lucic's late goal lifts Bruins over Flyers
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Milan Lucic scored with just under three minutes
remaining in the third period and helped the Boston Bruins take a 3-2 win over
the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal set.
David
<< Mets' P Escobar done for season
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York Mets reliever Kelvim Escobar will
reportedly undergo season ending surgery on Wednesday to repair a torn capsule
in front of his right shoulder.
The Star-Ledger reported the injury, but the Me
Nix homers in 11th to lead Reds over Mets >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Laynce Nix blasted a game-winning home run
in the bottom of the 11th inning to lead the Reds past the New York Mets, 3-2,
in the first of a three-game set at Great American Ball Park.
Nix's homer was his s
Rondo, big third quarter lift Celtics to Game 2 win >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rajon Rondo had 13 points and 19 assists,
and Boston outscored Cleveland by 19 during a big third quarter to earn a
104-86 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers to even their Eastern Conference
semifin
Red Sox go deep in pounding of Angels >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dustin Pedroia belted a three-run homer, and the
Red Sox went deep four times off Angels pitching in a 17-8 rout in the opener
of a four-game series.
Mike Lowell had four hits, including three doubles and en
Ramos continues torrid debut in Twins win over Tigers >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A day after totaling four hits in his major
league debut, catcher Wilson Ramos went 3-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI to
lead Minnesota to a 10-4 rout of Detroit, in the opener of a three-game
series.
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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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