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07/16/2010 - Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bronson Arroyo pitched into the eighth inning and Orlando Cabrera drove in two runs, as the surprising Cincinnati Reds opened the second half of the season with a 3-2 win over Colorado at Great American Ball Park.
Arroyo (10-4) let in two runs on five hits while fanning four and walking one to reach double-digit wins for the fourth time in five seasons with the Reds.
The right-hander has won five of his last six decisions, but needed to be bailed out Friday by All-Star reliever Arthur Rhodes in the eighth. With nobody out and the bases loaded, Rhodes got Dexter Fowler on a shallow pop fly and struck out Jonathan Herrera and Carlos Gonzalez.
Francisco Cordero came on for the save in the ninth, his 25th of 2010, while fellow Cincinnati All-Star Brandon Phillips finished with three hits and scored twice for the Reds, who sit atop the NL Central with a 50-41 record.
It marks the first time the club has been in first place this late in a season since the final week of the 1999 campaign.
Colorado's Jason Hammel (7-4) suffered his first loss since May 21 -- a stretch of 10 starts -- despite striking out a career-best 10 batters. In seven innings, he allowed three runs on eight hits with only one walk.
<< Romero bounces back to pitch Jays past Orioles
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ricky Romero tossed seven solid innings en
route to his first victory in exactly one month, as the Toronto Blue Jays held
off the Baltimore Orioles, 4-2, in the opener of a three-game set at Camden
Yards.
<< Keppinger, Myers lead Astros past Pirates
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeff Keppinger homered and drove in three
runs to support 7 2/3 sturdy innings from Brett Myers in Houston's 5-2 win
over the Pirates in the opener of a three-game set.
Hunter Pence singled twice, s
<< Covello moves in front at The Players Cup
Winnipeg, MB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vince Covello posted his second consecutive
five-under 66 on Friday and moved in front after two rounds of The Players
Cup.
Covello finished 36 holes at 10-under 132 and is three strokes ahead at Pine
<< Harvick grabs first truck pole at Gateway
Madison, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Harvick will start on the pole for
Friday's CampingWorld.com 200 Camping World Truck Series race after posting
the quickest lap in qualifying at Gateway International Raceway just outside
of St.
Marte, Kearns homer as Indians rout Tigers >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andy Marte and Austin Kearns each hit a two-
run homer, leading the Cleveland Indians in an 8-2 rout of the Detroit Tigers
to begin a four-game series at Progressive Field.
Travis Hafner and Trevor Crowe bo
Garrigus joins Bettencourt in first in Reno >>
Reno, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robert Garrigus fired a seven-under 65 on Friday
to join first-round leader Matt Bettencourt in a share of first after the
second round of the Reno-Tahoe Open.
Garrigus and Bettencourt, who bogeyed his l
Swisher's late heroics help Yankees overcome Rays >>
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Swisher hit the game-tying home run in the
eighth inning and singled in the winning run in the ninth, lifting the New
York Yankees to a 5-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on an emotional night at
Yankee
Wolf helps Brewers down Braves >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Randy Wolf picked up a rare win against
Atlanta, backed by two RBI apiece from sluggers Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder
in a 9-3 Brewers win at Turner Field.
Wolf (7-8) turned in six-plus solid frames,
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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