Giants try to further close gap on West-leading Padres

Baseball Betting Lines

09/10/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The battle for National League West supremacy between the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres resumes this evening with the second installment of a four-game series from Petco Park.

The Giants drew first blood with Thursday's 7-3 win in the series opener, trimming San Diego's once-comfortable lead atop the division standings to just one game thanks to a 13-hit attack highlighted by two-run homers from veteran Aubrey Huff and rookie Buster Posey.

"This is such a big series," Huff said. "To be able to come out and get the first game is huge, you know. You lose that game, you're down three and it's a little bit deflating. But now you're back down to one. So we've got three more games here. We've got to keep rolling. If we win this and lose the rest it really doesn't mean much."

Juan Uribe and Pat Burrell both went deep for the Giants, who are also only a game behind Atlanta for the Senior Circuit's Wild Card berth as well. Huff and Freddy Sanchez finished with three hits apiece, while starting pitcher Matt Cain recorded the win with eight innings of three-run ball. Relievers Javier Lopez and Ramon Ramirez worked the ninth to preserve the victory.

San Francisco owns a 5-2 mark on their 10-game road trip against NL West foes and has won seven of its last nine games overall. It will send Jonathan Sanchez to the mound Friday night with hopes of him keeping an unbeaten streak intact. Sanchez is 2-0 in his last four starts and defeated the Dodgers on Sunday with seven shutout innings in a 3-0 win.

Sanchez reached 10 wins in a season for the first time in his career and will try to bounce back against a Padres club that beat him on August 13 at AT&T Park. In the 3-2 loss that day, Sanchez gave up three runs in 5 1/3 innings and is only 2-5 with a solid 2.88 ERA through 17 lifetime matchups (10 starts) with San Diego.

The Padres appeared to be back on track with a three-game sweep of Los Angeles following a season-high 10-game losing streak, but reverted back to their losing ways last night versus the hard-charging Giants.

Jon Garland was aiming for his 14th win of the season before he surrendered six runs on eight hits and three walks in five innings. Garland didn't get much help offensively, as the Padres ended with five hits, two of which off the bat of Ryan Ludwick.

Ludwick clubbed a two-run homer and Will Venable cracked a solo home run in defeat. Ludwick is hitting .225 with four home runs and 16 RBI in 36 games since being acquired from St. Louis in late July.

"I think it was just kind of one of those days that there were some balls that were well struck," Venable said. "It did seem like it was carrying a little more than usual."

San Diego fell to 3-4 on a 10-game residency versus division foes and is relying on starting pitcher Clayton Richard to pull the club back into the win column. Richard has a perfect track record against the Giants this season, having gone 3-0 with a 2.05 earned run average in four starts. He beat San Francisco on August 13 and is 3-1 in five career starts in this series.

Richard, however, is 0-1 despite a 1.98 ERA in his last two starts since going 5-0 over his previous six outings. He did not figure into the decision of Sunday's 4-2 loss versus Colorado, as he was reached for two runs -- one earned -- and nine hits in six frames. The lefty remained at 12-6 to go along with a 3.43 ERA in 28 starts this season.

San Diego has dominated the season series with the Giants by a 9-3 count, including a 4-2 ledger at Petco Park.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

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