Rangers, Mariners wrap up short set with matinee

Baseball Betting Lines

04/24/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of veteran pitchers will again be seeking a first win of the 2007 season when the Seattle Mariners visit Rangers Ballpark today for the finale of a two-game series with Texas.

Seattle will start 32-year-old lefty Jarrod Washburn, who's lost two consecutive starts since getting a no decision in the Mariners' 8-4 defeat of Oakland on April 3.

Washburn allowed seven hits and three earned runs over six innings in the first of those two losses, a 5-2 setback to the Rangers in Seattle on April 13.

Lifetime against Texas, he is 7-7 in 24 appearances (22 starts) with a 4.13 earned run average in 135 innings. Last season, his first with the Mariners after spending eight years with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Washburn was 8-14 with a 4.67 ERA.

The Rangers will counter with Nicaraguan right-hander Vicente Padilla, who got a no decision against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday after losing three straight outings to begin the season.

Padilla was touched for six hits and four earned runs in six innings of an 8-3 loss to Seattle at Safeco Field on April 14. He is 1-4 with a 5.79 ERA against the Mariners in seven career games, including five starts.

Padilla was 15-10 with a 4.50 ERA as a member of the Rangers last year, after going 9-12 in his final season with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2005. He won 14 games with the Phillies in both 2002 and 2003.

On Monday, Adrian Beltre scored the go-ahead run in the seventh inning and the Mariners beat the Rangers, 5-4.

Ichiro Suzuki ended a homer shy of the cycle and drove in three runs with a bases-loaded triple in the fourth inning. Jose Lopez also had three hits and drove in one run for Seattle, which got 4 2/3 innings of one-hit ball from its bullpen to preserve the win.

Hank Blalock hit a two-run homer for the Rangers. Sammy Sosa added two hits and drove in a run for Texas.

Seattle reliever Brandon Morrow (1-0), who entered the game with one out in the fifth, pitched into the eighth to get his first major league win. He allowed just one hit, walked two and struck out a pair before giving way to J.J. Putz with two out in the eighth.

Putz recorded the final four outs for his first save of the season.

Mariners starter Cha Seung Baek allowed four runs on eight hits, striking out one and walking two, in 4 1/3 innings of work.

Kevin Millwood (2-3) was stuck with the loss, getting charged with five runs on 10 hits in six-plus innings. He struck out five and walked two.

The Mariners lead the season series with Texas, 3-1, and have won three in a row as the visitor against the Rangers dating back to last 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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