ChiSox seeking to get back on track at Mariners' expense

Baseball Betting Lines

07/26/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A subpar road trip has tightened things atop the American League Central for the first-place Chicago White Sox. A return home against a favorable opponent could help the club get back on track.

Chicago seeks a fifth consecutive victory at home over Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners in tonight's opener of a four-game set at U.S. Cellular Field.

The White Sox dropped a 6-4 decision to the Oakland Athletics on Sunday to wrap a 10-game, three-city road trip just 4-6. They lost three of four to Minnesota to begin the swing, then took two of three versus the Mariners prior to losing the rubber match to Oakland on Sunday.

Alex Rios and Alexei Ramirez each had two hits and an RBI in the loss, but starter Daniel Hudson gave up five runs on six hits and four walks over five innings to suffer the defeat.

"I thought we would have played a little bit better," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "It was a long road trip. Hopefully when we get home we get better."

Chicago's lead over second-place Minnesota fell to just one game, while third- place Detroit is two games off the pace.

The White Sox had won five in a row over the Mariners before losing the finale of their most recent meeting last Wednesday. They swept a three-game set at home over Seattle from April 23-25 and have won eight of the last nine at U.S. Cellular Field in the series.

Hernandez started Wednesday's game for the Mariners, but did not factor into the decision of his team's 2-1 victory in 11 innings despite eight scoreless innings of two-hit ball. The 24-year-old didn't walk a batter and struck out eight while pitching at least eight innings for the seventh time in eight starts.

"Felix did everything he could and everything we asked of him," said Seattle manager Don Wakamatsu.

The right-hander is 2-2 with a 3.16 earned run average in his career versus the White Sox and 7-6 with a 2.75 ERA overall this season.

Chicago will counter Hernandez with John Danks, who will try to record a fourth consecutive winning start this evening. The left-hander extended his personal run last Tuesday versus Seattle, hurling 7 2/3 scoreless innings while working around two hits and four walks and striking out eight.

"It was good. I felt good," said Danks, who improved to 3-4 with a 3.83 ERA in his career versus the Mariners. "It was a good game. We scored some runs and as a staff were able to shut them out."

Danks, 25, won for the sixth time in his last eight starts and is 10-7 with a 3.37 ERA on the season. He'll try to prevent the Mariners from recording their first three-game winning streak since a season-best run of six consecutive victories from June 16-23.

After hitting a two-run homer in Saturday's victory over Boston, Michael Saunders' helped Seattle earn a split of the four-game set with a go-ahead two-run single in the eighth inning of Sunday's 4-2 triumph. Saunders' hit was one of six straight in the inning for the M's.

"These things add up over time and give him a belief system that he can play," Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said of Saunders. "The more time he can play the better he is going to be. He's having good quality at bats."

Casey Kotchman added three hits and scored a run while pinch-hitter Milton Bradley provided a run-scoring bunt single in the 2,500th victory of Seattle's franchise history.

The milestone win, though, was just the Marines' sixth in their last 22 games overall.

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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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