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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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Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?
I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.
There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.
Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.
For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.
A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.
The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.
Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.
So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.
Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.
“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.
Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.
“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.
It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.
Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.
The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.
“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.
“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”
Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.
The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.
“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”
Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?
“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.
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