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09/06/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tim Wakefield targets win No. 17 this evening when the Boston Red Sox open a four-game series with the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.
Wakefield, who is one victory off the pace of major league leaders Chien-Ming Wang and teammate Josh Beckett, has won his last three starts without giving up a run, but has not pitched since August 25 because of a sore back. He scattered three hits against the Chicago White Sox over seven scoreless innings in that one, as he ran his scoreless innings streak to 22 frames.
The 41-year-old knuckleballer, who is 16-10 with a 4.16 earned run average on the year, has also recorded a decision in all of his 26 starts this season and is the first to do so since Jack McDowell posted decisions in his first 27 starts with the White Sox in 1993.
Wakefield defeated the O's the last time he faced them and is 14-13 lifetime against them with four saves and a 4.06 ERA in 43 games, 30 of which have been starts.
Boston enters tonight's tilt on a sour note after it was denied a sweep in its three-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays, dropping a 6-4 decision in Wednesday's finale at Fenway Park. Jason Varitek hit a two-run homer for the Red Sox, who had a four-game win streak broken and saw their lead in the AL East shrink to six games over the New York Yankees.
Hideki Okajima (3-2) took the loss, while Curt Schilling allowed three runs and eight hits, with a walk and two strikeouts over six innings in the start.
Baltimore, meanwhile, continued to struggle and was crushed by the equally woeful Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Wednesday, 17-2, in the finale of a three-game set at Tropicana Field. Tike Redman doubled in two runs for the Orioles, who have lost 13 of their last 15 games, a stretch that began with a major-league record- setting 30-3 loss to Texas in the first game of a doubleheader on August 22.
Radhames Liz (0-2), in his third major league start, surrendered six hits and four runs through 1 2/3 innings.
Getting the call for the Orioles tonight will be 23-year-old lefty Garrett Olson, who is 1-3 with a 7.22 ERA. Olson was tagged with the loss on Saturday against the Red Sox, as he surrendered four runs and seven his in 5 1/3 innings. He has lost both of his starts to Boston this season.
Boston has won nine of its 14 matchups with the Orioles this season and is 34-16 in the series since the start of the 2005 campaign. The Red Sox have also had success in Baltimore, where they have won in 13 of their last 17 visits.
<< Division leaders square off in Anaheim
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paul Byrd tries to win his fifth straight start this
evening when the red-hot Cleveland Indians begin a four-game series with the
LA Angels of Anaheim in a battle of division leaders at Angel Stadium.
Byrd is co
<< Report: Vikings, Williams agree to contract extension
St. Paul, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Vikings are expected to sign
Pro Bowl nose tackle Pat Williams to a three-year contract extension this
week.
According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the space-eater will ink the deal
<< D'Backs reclaim first in NL West
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Young hit a three-run double in the fifth
to help the Arizona Diamondbacks reclaim the NL West lead with a 9-6 win over
the San Diego Padres in the finale of a three-game series at Chase Field.
Miguel Mo
<< North Dakota extends Hakstol, assistants
Grand Forks, ND (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of North Dakota announced
Wednesday the five-year contract extension for men's hockey coach Dave
Hakstol, and extended associate head coach Cary Eades and assistant coach Dane
Jackson
Maroth targets first win with Cards in finale against Bucs >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Maroth will shoot for his first win in a St. Louis
uniform when the Cardinals wrap up a four-game series versus the Pittsburgh
Pirates this afternoon at Busch Stadium.
Maroth is 5-6 with a 6.79 ERA in 21 games (19 s
Phils' playoff hopes toasted after ugly loss >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 1991 Philadelphia Eagles had one of the best defenses
ever assembled in NFL history. They also had a player nicknamed "Toast" for
his inability to cover the deep ball.
Izel Jenkins played defensive back for the
Tigers reinstate Sheffield from DL >>
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Tigers reinstated slugger
Gary Sheffield from the 15-day disabled list, where he had been sidelined with
a sore right shoulder since August 22.
The shoulder had bothered Sheffield
Browns CB Bodden arrested >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cleveland Browns cornerback Leigh Bodden was
arrested at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Wednesday night.
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Bodden was stopped by police after
putting his 2
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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