Astros rally late, upend Cardinals

Baseball Betting Lines

08/02/2010 - St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeff Keppinger drove in four runs as Houston scored seven times in the final two innings to take a 9-4 win over St. Louis in the opener of a three-game set.

Chris Johnson drove in two runs while Hunter Pence and Carlos Lee each had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI for the Astros, who have won a season-high six straight games.

Brett Myers went six innings and was charged with three runs -- two earned -- on three hits with four walks and four strikeouts. He has now gone 22 consecutive starts of at least six innings, which is a Houston record to begin the season. Nelson Figueroa (3-1) was given the win for throwing the seventh inning.

Albert Pujols hit a solo home run while Felipe Lopez went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored for the Cardinals, who had won three straight coming in.

Jake Westbrook went six innings in his Cardinals debut and was charged with two runs on four hits with a walk and seven strikeouts. Mike MacDougal (1-1) was saddled with the loss.

Trailing by two runs in the eighth, Houston surged ahead. With Jason Motte on the mound, Michael Bourn led off with a walk and stole second before Anderson Hernandez walked.

MacDougal then took the mound and got Pence to foul out, but Lee singled home Bourn and Keppinger followed with a double to tie the game. After Brett Wallace was intentionally walked, Johnson hit into a fielder's choice to give Houston a 5-4 lead. Humberto Quintero hit into a double play to end the inning.

Houston padded its lead in the ninth. With men on first and third, Pence punched a single to left that scored one and, two batters later, Keppinger belted a two-run single to center. After Wallace flied out, Johnson doubled off the wall in left to bring home one more for a 9-4 lead.

Matt Lindstrom worked around a leadoff single in the ninth to close out the victory.

St. Louis got on the board in the first as Lopez led off with a single, then came home when Myers and Bourn both committed throwing errors on Jon Jay's grounder back to the mound.

Houston took the lead in the fourth. Hernandez led off with a double and Pence followed with an infield single. After Lee struck out, Keppinger grounded out to allow Hernandez to score. Wallace then hit a single off of Westbrook and Pence came home for a 2-1 lead.

It was short-lived, though, as Pujols led off the bottom of the fourth with a shot over the left field wall. St. Louis put its next three men on base to for Skip Schumaker, who grounded into a double play for a 3-2 lead.

St. Louis got another run in the seventh, when Brendan Ryan singled with two outs and came home on Lopez's double.

Game Notes

On Sunday, the Astros and Myers agreed to a $21 million deal that runs through the 2011 and 2012 seasons and includes an option for 2013...Quintero celebrated his 31st birthday on Monday...Houston has taken six of the 10 games against St. Louis this season...Pujols has 26 home runs this season.

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It's less than a month until the NHL hockey betting season opens at MySportsbook.com and preparations are underway for another battle in the race to hoist Lord Stanley's mug in 2007.

As cup crazy fans prepare to place their bets, one online sportsbook ,MySportsbook.com, is offering hockey betting lines on the 2007/2007 Stanley Cup , who will bring it home this upcoming season.

Despite a poor showing in last season's playoffs and the loss of Steve Yzerman to retirement, the Detroit Red Wings are early favourites at this online sportsbook with wagering odds of 6-1. The Wings will look to offensive powerhouse Pavel Datsyuk and newly appointed captain Nicklas Lidstrom to lead one of the league's most prominent franchises.

Always a threat are the Ottawa Senators, with newly acquired goaltender Martin Gerber from the Stanley Cup champion ,Carolina Hurricanes. The Sens are second best in the rankings at a 7-1 bet, and odds makers at this sportsbook are optimistic that the Ottawa squad will fare better than last season's Eastern Conference semi-final upset to the Buffalo Sabres.

Also worth noting are the defending Stanley Cup champs Carolina Hurricanes, a 10-1 bet to repeat. Behind the Canes are the New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames, Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, and Anaheim Mighty Ducks all sit at 12-1. In the basement are the Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, and St. Louis Blues who all have 100-1 odds to win.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your hockey betting needs.

Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com

Additional basketball lines can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com

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