Angels visit A's in clash of slumping division foes

Baseball Betting Lines

07/09/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of struggling AL West inhabitants get together this evening in Oakland, as the Athletics and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim kick off a three-game series from the Coliseum.

The Angels have dropped four straight and the A's are currently mired in a three-game losing streak. Los Angeles was just swept in all four games by the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field and is coming off Thursday's 1-0 setback in the series finale.

Ervin Santana was outdueled by White Sox starter John Danks, who went the distance and allowed two hits with seven strikeouts for the win. Santana allowed Paul Konerko's sacrifice fly in the first inning and scattered three hits to fall to 8-7 this season. He struck out four and walked three batters in the hard-luck loss.

Reggie Willits and Howie Kendrick had the only hits for the Angels, who have lost six of their last seven games and are 5 1/2 games behind Texas in the division standings. Angels All-Star Torii Hunter went 0-for-3 at the plate and expressed his displeasure after the game.

"We have to play better -- and we will," Hunter said on the team's website "There's too much talent in here to be playing like this. Our pitching has been awesome. We're just not playing the way we're capable of playing, the way we're supposed to play."

Angels starter Joel Pineiro is pitching the way he's supposed to and will take his six-start winning streak to the mound Friday. Pineiro is 6-0 with a 2.08 earned run average during his current run and threw seven shutout innings in an 11-0 beating of Kansas City on Sunday. Pineiro allowed six hits, struck out three and issued four walks.

The right-hander, who is 9-6 in 17 total starts, blanked the Athletics on May 16 in a 4-0 win. He struck out five and walked one to improve to 9-8 in 23 career matchups, 18 of which have been starts, with the Athletics.

Oakland just lost all three contests with the visiting New York Yankees and suffered a 6-3 setback Wednesday in the series finale from the Coliseum. Gio Gonzalez was roughed up in the start and was reached for five runs on eight hits and five walks in four innings of work.

"Just trying to do too much, instead of just going out there and trusting your stuff, trusting your defense and throwing strikes," Gonzalez said. "I should have attacked the zone, right from the get-go. Should have thrown first-pitch strikes."

Coco Crisp and Jack Cust had an RBI apiece for the Athletics, who have dropped six of seven games overall and sit 9 1/2 games off the lead in the AL West.

Vin Mazzaro will try for better luck when he takes the hill for the A's tonight. Mazzaro has won two straight starts and is 4-2 with a 3.81 ERA in 10 games (seven starts) this season. He last took the hill on a July 4 win at Cleveland, where he tossed 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball and fanned seven.

The right-hander was a recipient of plenty of run support against the Angels in a 10-1 win on June 8 at the Coliseum. Mazzaro lasted five innings and permitted one run to push his career mark to 1-1 in three starts in this series.

The Angels have won six of 10 meetings with Oakland this season and are 10-4 in the 14 most recent contests between the AL West foes.

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FOOTBALL BETTING LINES

NFL Football Sports Betting

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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