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06/05/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) -- The Atlanta Braves have vaulted themselves to the top of the National League East by virtue of an impressive recent run of success. The Los Angeles Dodgers are hoping their own surge of late can propel the defending NL West champions back into first place of their division.
The two red-hot teams resume a four-game series this evening at Dodger Stadium, where the Braves will attempt to bounce back from their first defeat in more than a week.
Atlanta extended its winning streak to nine games with a 4-3 decision in Thursday's series opener, but the Dodgers drew even via a 5-4 verdict in last night's second test of this set. The win was the fifth in six games for Los Angeles and moved Joe Torre's club within a half-game of first-place San Diego in the NL West race.
Dodgers first baseman James Loney snapped a 4-4 tie with a two-out single in the bottom of the seventh inning, and Hong-Chih Kuo and Jonathan Broxton combined to hold the Braves scoreless over the final two frames to seal the victory. Kuo (1-1) earned the win with 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Clayton Kershaw, who struck out eight over 6 2/3 innings but was charged with four runs allowed (three earned).
Rafael Furcal added an RBI triple and scored twice for Los Angeles, which blew an early 4-0 advantage before regaining the lead on Loney's clutch base hit off reliever Eric O'Flaherty in the seventh.
"We're not going to quit," said Torre. "I thought Clayton threw very well, and Loney looked for a pitch and he got it."
Yunel Escobar went 3-for-4 with three RBI for Atlanta and tied the contest at 4-4 with a two-run double in the top of the seventh. Braves starter Kenshin Kawakami was saddled with his eighth straight loss to begin the season, however, after allowing the go-ahead run to reach base in the bottom of the inning.
Kawakami (0-8) was charged with five runs on nine hits over 6 1/3 innings, and still hasn't notched a win since August 31 of last season.
"He struggled a little early, got some pitches up in the zone. Then he pitched well after that, gave us a chance to win," said Braves catcher David Ross of Kawakami. "We just ran into a really good pitcher tonight that had our number."
Atlanta, which had been riding its longest win streak since a franchise-best 15-game tear from April 16-May 2, 2000, currently holds a two-game edge on Philadelphia for first place in the East.
The Braves will turn to Tommy Hanson in hopes of starting a new streak tonight. The talented young righty has bounced back strongly from a disastrous outing against Cincinnati on May 20 with back-to-back winning efforts over fellow NL East members Florida and Philadelphia, which upped his season record to 5-3 and lowered his earned run average to 3.78.
Hanson was rocked for eight runs and eight hits before being lifted after 1 2/3 innings against the Reds, but returned to throw six frames of two-run ball to defeat the Marlins on May 26. He was even better in Sunday's 9-3 home win over the Phillies, yielding just one run and three hits while lasting 6 2/3 innings.
The 23-year-old went 11-4 with an impressive 2.89 ERA as a rookie last season, but one of those defeats came at the hands of the Dodgers last July. In that game Hanson was reached for four runs and eight hits in six innings.
Chad Billingsley will put a personal winning streak of his own on the line when he takes the mound for the Dodgers tonight. The 2009 All-Star has won four consecutive decisions and recorded a 2.45 ERA over his last five starts, while racking up 35 strikeouts in a 33-inning span.
Billingsley did not pick up a victory his last time out, but struck out a season-best 11 Arizona hitters without a walk in an eight-inning no-decision against the Diamondbacks. He allowed four runs on the night, all of which came in the first two innings as a result of three homers.
The former first-round pick has faced Atlanta six times previously -- four as a starter -- but is just 1-2 with a 3.65 ERA lifetime against Atlanta. That lone win took place at Turner Field last August, when Billingsley fanned nine over five scoreless innings and permitted just two hits.
Los Angeles lost four of seven meetings with Atlanta a year ago and had dropped four in a row in this series -- all at Dodger Stadium -- prior to Friday's win.
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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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