Angels wrap set with M's aiming for fifth straight win

Baseball Betting Lines

06/04/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will try to run their current win streak to a season-high five games in this afternoon's finale of a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners from Safeco Field.

The Angels have taken the first two matchups of this set with the lowly Mariners to maintain a 3 1/2-game lead over second-place Oakland in the American League West standings. Anaheim will visit the Athletics for three consecutive meetings beginning on Friday.

On Tuesday, the Angels' struggling offense jumped to a big early advantage and the club received another strong showing on the mound from Joe Saunders to record a 5-4 victory over Seattle.

Maicer Izturis had two hits and three RBI and Robb Quinlan finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored for Anaheim, which led 5-0 after 3 1/2 innings and held on the rest of the way. Torii Hunter also collected a pair of hits, including an RBI double in the first inning.

Saunders (9-2) became the AL's first nine-game winner this season with seven quality innings. The left-hander did allow four runs, but just one was earned, and yielded six hits while issuing only one walk.

Francisco Rodriguez struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth to notch his major league-best 23rd save.

The Angels shelled Erik Bedard (4-4) for five runs (4 earned) and seven hits before the Seattle ace was pulled after just 3 1/3 innings. Bedard, who also walked three before exiting, entered the contest with a 1.34 earned run average at home.

Jose Lopez homered and scored twice for the Mariners, losers of three in a row and owners of the AL's worst overall record at 21-38.

Seattle wraps up a nine-game homestand this afternoon and has gone 3-5 so far on the residency. The team will turn to the struggling Carlos Silva today in hopes of avoiding a series sweep.

Like the Mariners in general, Silva has been a disappointment so far this season. The offseason free-agent acquisition has lost five straight decisions since a 3-0 beginning to the campaign and is coming off a horrible month of May.

In six May starts, Silva went 0-5 and surrendered a whopping 35 runs (33 earned) and 51 hits over just 27 innings of work. The right-hander's most recent outing was the worst of the bunch, with Silva getting rocked for seven runs on seven hits and recording only two outs in a loss to Detroit on Friday.

On the flip side, Silva owns an impressive 6-1 record with a 3.55 ERA in 10 career games (9 starts) against the Angels and beat Anaheim with eight innings of three-run ball at Safeco Field on April 12.

Jered Weaver also looks to rebound from a poor last start when he takes the hill today for the Angels. The lanky right-hander permitted six runs and 10 hits over just four innings in Friday's 10-4 home loss to Toronto.

Weaver had won two straight starts prior to that misstep, including an eight- inning gem at Chicago on May 24 in which he did not give up a run and held the White Sox to three hits.

The 25-year-old is 4-2 lifetime against Seattle despite a mediocre 5.06 ERA over eight starts. Weaver was handed a loss by the Mariners at Safeco Field on April 11, a game in which he was touched for five runs and walked four in 5 2/3 innings.

On the injury front, Angels star outfielder Vladimir Guerrero has missed the first two games of this series with a sore knee and is considered day-to-day.

Anaheim holds a slim 5-3 edge in this year's season series with Seattle. The Angels took 13 of 19 contests from the Mariners last season and posted a 6-3 mark at Safeco in 2007.

Seattle did win two of three encounters with the Angels at home from April 11-13.

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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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