Cards try to make it two straight wins in Washington

Baseball Betting Lines

08/28/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals will try move closer towards a playoff berth tonight in the third test of a four-game series against the homestanding Washington Nationals.

The Cardinals are one game off the wild card lead in the National League and sit four games behind Cincinnati for NL Central supremacy. After losing the opener of this series in 13 innings on Thursday, St. Louis responded with a 4-2 triumph Friday thanks to solo homers from Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday. Pujols owns 401 home runs in his career after belting No. 400 a day before.

Jon Jay also plated a run and starter Jaime Garcia threw 5 1/3 shutout innings with seven strikeouts to improve to 12-6. Ryan Franklin gave up a run in the ninth and still managed to post his 22nd save of the season.

"Every game is big, especially in the situation we're in now," Garcia said.

Hoping to duplicate Garcia's success on the mound tonight will be Kyle Lohse, who is just 2-5 with a 6.47 ERA in 11 starts this season. He ended a two-game slide his last time out in a win at Pittsburgh on Monday, as he limited the Pirates to two runs and six hits in 5 1/3 frames.

Lohse, a right-hander, beat Washington on May 17 this season and is 3-1 in nine career matchups, seven of which have been starts, with the Nationals.

Washington is still trying to get over the awful news that pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg will likely undergo Tommy John surgery on his right arm, and may not be available until the 2012 campaign.

The Nationals sustained their fifth loss in six tries last night, as Willie Harris homered and Ian Desmond ended with three hits and a run scored.

"We had 12 hits. The opportunities are out there," Nationals manager Jim Riggleman said. "That means we're competitive against tough pitchers and tough ball clubs."

Scott Olsen took the loss for Riggleman's club after yielding three runs -- one earned -- in six innings.

Toeing the rubber for the Nats tonight will be veteran Livan Hernandez. The big right-hander, however, is 0-2 in his last four starts and was beaten by the Cubs on Monday at Nationals Park. In the 9-1 decision, Hernandez gave up seven runs and 10 hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Hernandez was coming off seven innings of two-run ball at Atlanta, but couldn't carry the success into his most recent outing. He is 8-9 in 26 starts this season and 5-7 in 18 career meetings -- all starts -- against St. Louis.

Washington halted a six-game losing streak in this series with Thursday's triumph. St. Louis has still prevailed in 14 of the last 17 meetings between the teams and swept a two-game set from the Nationals at Busch Stadium in May.

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College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.