Braves go for a series win over Marlins

Baseball Betting Lines

08/29/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The National League East-leading Atlanta Braves were able to end their four-game slide with last night's win versus the Florida Marlins. This afternoon they'll try for a series victory over their division rivals in the finale of a three-game set from Turner Field.

Atlanta broke out the bats in a huge way by handing the Marlins a 12-3 loss Saturday in the second test of this series. Matt Diaz homered to highlight a six-run second inning and Martin Prado belted a two-run homer and finished with a career-best five RBI for the Braves, who are still two games in front of Philadelphia in the NL East after the Phillies beat San Diego.

Eric Hinske went deep and Brian McCann drove in three runs in the win.

Braves starter Tim Hudson struck out a career-high 13 batters through seven strong innings, allowing just one run, six hits and one walk to improve to 15-5 on the season.

"I hope that I never have to try to win a game to stop a losing streak," Hudson said. "Hopefully, those losing streaks don't happen for the rest of the season. I know that you can't win them all, but I feel like whenever I go out there, I feel like we're going to have a good chance to win."

The Braves will host the New York Mets for four games after this set.

Derek Lowe draws the start for Atlanta this afternoon and has lost three straight outings. He is also only 2-7 with a 4.20 earned run average in his past 11 starts and pitched well enough for a win his last time out. In a 5-2 loss at Colorado on Tuesday, Lowe tossed six innings of three-run ball to fall to 11-12 in 27 starts to go along with a 4.33 ERA.

The lanky right-hander, who is 8-5 in 14 starts at Turner Field, will face Florida for the 19th time in his career. In 18 appearances (13 starts) against the Marlins, Lowe is 6-4 with three saves and a 5.03 ERA.

Florida had a three-game winning streak come to an end last night and was hoping to see Ricky Nolasco post his 15th win of the season. Instead Nolasco was reached for six runs, seven hits and walked three batters in only two innings of work to suffer the loss.

Andrew Miller did no better in relief and yielded four runs -- three earned -- in just four innings. Donnie Murphy, Emilio Bonifacio and Brad Davis each had an RBI for the Marlins, who dropped 6 1/2 games off the lead in the wild card race. The Marlins are also 8 1/2 games in back of Atlanta in the NL East.

"It was (deflating), but it's going to happen," Marlins first baseman Gaby Sanchez said of the loss. "You're going to lose ball games. Sometimes, you're going to lose them like we did today, 12-3. Sometimes, they'll be close ones, but we just have to forget about today and forget about what happened. Just bounce back, and tomorrow's a new day."

Florida should feel confident with All-Star Josh Johnson set to take the mound Sunday. Johnson, however, is only 1-2 with a 5.06 earned run average in his previous six starts. After throwing eight innings of two-run ball in a win at Pittsburgh on August 18, Johnson did not factor in the outcome of a 6-5 loss against the Mets on Tuesday.

Johnson was reached for four runs -- three earned -- and six hits in five innings at Citi Field. He remained at 11-5 in 26 starts and raised his ERA slightly from 2.27 to 2.36. The right-hander is 4-2 in 13 career games, 12 of which have been starts, against Atlanta.

The Braves are 6-5 against the Marlins this season.

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Football Betting

NFL Football Betting Online

The San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.

Thursday, August 21

NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37

NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road

In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.

Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):

* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games

Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.

Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.

Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.

That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.

Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.

CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

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