Buehrle, ChiSox stop Royals
Baseball Betting Lines
07/02/2009 - Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Buehrle took a shutout into the ninth inning, as the Chicago White Sox extended their season-high win streak to six games with a 4-1 win over the Kansas City Royals.
Buehrle (8-2) allowed a run on six hits, walked none and struck out one in 8 1/3 frames. He did not give up the run until the ninth, when Bobby Jenks entered to get the final two outs, in addition to his 19th save this season.
Jayson Nix had two hits, including a homer, while Jim Thome went 2-for-4 and scored once to help the White Sox take the opener of the four-game series.
Bruce Chen (0-2) got his second start of the season for the Royals and for the second time took the loss, despite a solid outing. He surrendered two runs on five hits in six-plus innings, with one walk and five strikeouts.
David DeJesus doubled and drove in the lone run for Kansas City, which has lost three in a row and six of eight.
Nix homered to left to lead off the fourth, getting Chicago on the scoreboard, and the White Sox held on to the lead thanks to Buehrle. The left-hander benefited from inning-ending double plays in the first, second and fifth innings to move the game along and keep his pitch count low.
Also, Buehrle was perfect in the fourth and sixth, and Chicago added another run in the seventh. Thome led off with a double and Paul Konerko followed with a single to put runners on the corners. Chen was lifted in favor of Ron Mahay who got A.J. Pierzynski to ground into a double play. Thome scored on the play to make it a 2-0 game.
Buehrle worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh, and the White Sox went up 3-0 in the eighth. Scott Podsednik's single plated Brian Anderson, who reached on a walk and went to second on a wild pitch.
After Buehrle again was perfect in the home eighth, Josh Fields scored on Gordon Beckham's RBI groundout in the top of the ninth to push Chicago's lead to four.
Buehrle ran into trouble in trying to complete the shutout, as Alberto Callaspo opened the bottom of the ninth with a double. Callaspo scored two batters later, when DeJesus doubled. Buehrle was taken out for Jenks, who got the next two batters out to end the game.
Game Notes
Chicago's previous season-high win streak was four games (May 29-June 1)...Mark Teahen had two hits for the Royals...Konerko had two hits for the White Sox...Chicago has won 13 of its last 17 overall, and 12 of its last 15 as the visitor.
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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.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.