Guerrero burns former team as Rangers top Angels
Baseball Betting Lines
07/01/2010 -
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vladimir Guerrero continued to torment his old
team, going 4-for-4 with two homers and five RBI, as the Texas Rangers evened
this three-game set with a 6-4 win over the rival Angels.
Guerrero, who spent the last six seasons with the Angels, has had a huge year
for the Rangers and now has three home runs and eight RBI in the first two
games of this series alone. He has already eclipsed last season's home run
total with his 17th and 18th of 2010 and has been one of the most productive
players in the American League.
It was the third multi-homer game of the season for Guerrero and the 42nd of
his career. The Rangers have now won 14 of 16 overall and will look for their
franchise-record ninth straight series win in the rubber match on Thursday.
Dustin Nippert (3-3) recorded the win after allowing one run in three innings,
and Neftali Feliz notched his 21st save of the season. Meanwhile, Josh
Hamilton's career-best hit streak increased to 23 with a 1-for-3 effort.
Erick Aybar homered and drove in two runs for the Angels, who still managed to
finish June with an excellent 18-9 mark. Scott Kazmir (7-7) struggled in
losing his second straight start, giving up five runs, six hits and a walk in
just 4 2/3 innings.
The Rangers trailed by three entering the fourth, but one swing of the bat
from Guerrero put Texas ahead for good.
Kazmir got in some trouble when he hit leadoff hitter Elvis Andrus, and
Michael Young followed with a double. After Ian Kinsler walked on a full
count, Guerrero came up and crushed a 2-0 pitch over the wall in center for a
grand slam and a 4-3 Rangers advantage.
In the fifth, Andrus laced a one-out single, moved to second on a groundout
and scored on Kinsler's base hit, which ended Kazmir's outing.
The Angels looked to get back into the game in the sixth, trimming their
deficit to one on Aybar's RBI groundout. LA nearly tied it, as Howie Kendrick
and Bobby Abrey followed with consecutive two-out singles and executed a
double steal, but Torii Hunter lined out to end the inning.
Guerrero, though, gave the Rangers some breathing room again with his second
home run of the game -- a solo shot -- to deep center leading off the eighth.
The Angels never brought the tying run to the plate in either of the final two
innings.
Omar Beltre, making his major league debut in a spot start for Texas, ran into
some trouble rather quickly, as he allowed a home run to the first batter he
faced in the majors -- Los Angeles' Aybar. The Angels tacked on two more runs
in the second on a two-run single from Reggie Willits for a 3-0 advantage.
Game Notes
The Rangers finished June 21-6, and the .778 winning percentage is the highest
for a single month in franchise history...Texas leads the season series,
3-1...Hamilton finished the month with a franchise record 49 hits, nine homers
and 31 RBI...Beltre finished the game allowing three runs, five hits and four
walks while fanning six in four innings...Angels third baseman Kevin Frandsen
went four plate appearances without striking out and has now struck out just
once over his last 89 PAs...Guerrero has 68 RBI this season, tied for the most
in the majors with Detroit's Miguel Cabrera, and he hit his seventh career
grand slam.
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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
Bet 2010 Super Bowl Odds
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
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