Angels take all three in Freeway Series vs. Dodgers

Baseball Betting Lines

06/13/2010 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hideki Matsui finished 3-for-4 with two RBI as the Angels held on to top the Dodgers, 6-5, in the finale of a three-game interleague series from Dodger Stadium.

Bobby Abreu collected three hits, scored twice and drove in a run while Torii Hunter and Mike Napoli homered for the Angels, who swept the set and have won four of five overall.

Jered Weaver (6-3) yielded five hits and three runs with seven strikeouts over six innings for the win. Brian Fuentes turned in a scoreless ninth for his 10th save.

Manny Ramirez went 3-for-4 with two doubles and scored twice for the Dodgers, who had won four in a row prior to this weekend. James Loney added three hits and three RBI and Rafael Furcal homered in the setback.

Carlos Monasterios (3-1) suffered his first defeat of the season after allowing seven hits and four runs with three walks over just 2 2/3 frames.

Down 5-1, the Dodgers struck for a pair of runs in the home seventh to close the gap to two. Ramirez led off with a double and Loney doubled him in, signaling Weaver's exit for Kevin Jepsen. After two quick outs, Blake DeWitt plated Loney with a single.

Napoli's solo shot in the eighth gave the Halos a 6-3 cushion, but the home team responded with two more in the bottom half. Russell Martin drew a leadoff walk, advanced on a Ramirez single then both scored on Loney's double.

Fuentes walked pinch-hitter Casey Blake in the bottom of the ninth but Matt Kemp fanned swinging and Furcal grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.

The Angels picked up two in the first on RBI singles from Abreu and Matsui, and the Dodgers responded in the home half when Furcal led off with his second homer of the year.

Hunter's blast and Howie Kendrick's run-scoring double in the third pushed the visitors' edge to 4-1, then Matsui knocked in Abreu with a single in the fifth.

Game Notes

The Angels have won five of the last seven meetings with the Dodgers, and have won five of the last six at Chavez Ravine...It was the first time the Angels swept the Dodgers in LA since interleague play began in 1997...For Furcal, it was his 26th leadoff homer, and 14th as Dodger.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

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