Angels rest hopes on Saunders vs. Royals

Baseball Betting Lines

07/02/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Royals haven't presented the Angels with much of an obstacle over the last two-plus seasons and Los Angeles starter Joe Saunders hasn't been exempt from that success.

Saunders aims to remain undefeated in his career versus Kansas City in the opener of a three-game series at Angels Stadium in Anaheim.

Los Angeles has won three of four versus Kansas City this year and has captured 15 of the last 18 meetings between the clubs. That includes a three- game sweep the last time these teams met in California on May 8-10, 2009.

Saunders is 3-0 with a 3.00 earned run average in four career starts against the Angels and he snapped a recent two-start skid on Saturday versus the Rockies.

The left-hander had allowed 11 earned runs over just 8 1/3 innings during his personal skid, but he held Colorado to just a pair of runs on four hits in seven innings while striking out eight and improving to 6-8 with a 4.88 ERA this year.

"I was working on stuff in the bullpen," Saunders said. "My curve ball and slider were working good tonight. I was just trying to be more consistent."

While the 29-year-old is just 2-6 with a 6.18 ERA in nine starts at home, the Angels enter the final set of their 12-game homestand with a 6-3 mark thus far on the residency. They just took two games from American League West-leading Texas, including a 2-1 victory on Thursday that pulled the Angels within 3 1/2 games of the Rangers.

Jered Weaver allowed just two hits over seven scoreless innings in winning Thursday night's game, while Mike Napoli had an RBI double and Howie Kendrick also drove in a run in Los Angeles' fourth win in five games.

"That's as hot a lineup as your going to face," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of shutting down the Rangers. "There was no doubt Jered had his stuff. He used all his pitches. It was a great effort."

Even with their past success, the Angels can't look past a Royals club that has won five of its last seven games and is coming off Wednesday's 7-6 triumph over the White Sox.

Jose Guillen capped a four-run seventh inning with a three-run homer, while Billy Butler also went deep. Zach Greinke got the win despite allowing six runs on 10 hits in eight innings.

Kansas City begins a nine-game road trip tonight and Kyle Davies gets things going on the mound. The right-hander is 0-3 over his last five starts, though, with an 8.64 ERA. He had posted consecutive no-decisions in which he gave up 10 runs over 7 1/3 innings and then allowed five runs -- four earned -- in a seven-inning loss to the Cardinals on Saturday.

"You go into these games and you try to make the opposing team beat you and that's what he did today," said Royals' skipper Ned Yost in assessing Davies' outing. "He didn't walk a bunch of guys, he didn't give them free runs, they earned every one they got. It was a vast improvement."

Davies is 4-6 with a 6.06 ERA and 3-2 with a 6.65 ERA in eight road starts this season. The 26-year-old lost to the Angels at home on June 2, yielding six runs over four innings while falling to 1-1 against them lifetime with a 4.80 ERA.

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2007 online football betting Preview

My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."

The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.

To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.

However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.

Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.

Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.

Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.

2007 College Football Betting Preview

There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.

The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.

So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.

USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.

USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.

Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.

That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.

The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"

The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.

Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.

Las Vegas Sports Lines

The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.

It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."

The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.

The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.

Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.

After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.

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