Santana hopes for a little run support in LA

Baseball Betting Lines

07/23/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scoring runs is vital to winning baseball games. The New York Mets must have missed that memo.

The suddenly-dismal club will try to cross the plate a few times tonight in the second portion of a four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chavez Ravine. New York is 1-7 on its 11-game, three-city tour out West and has been shut out three times on the journey. In Thursday's 2-0 loss in the series opener, Hiroki Kuroda held the Mets to five hits over eight shutout innings and Hong-Chih Kuo closed the door in the ninth for his third save.

Mets starter Hisanori Takahashi pitched well, but suffered the loss after giving up both runs and three hits through seven innings. Jeff Francoeur ended with a team-high two hits for New York, which has lost 10 of 12 games overall and is 4-13 in the past 17 road games. It has been held to four runs or less in 13 straight games, going 3-10 in that span, and is 5-13 in July after going 18-8 in June.

"Offensively, we are still struggling. We just can't put things together. At some point we have to turn this thing around," said Mets manager Jerry Manuel.

Manuel might get his wish with ace Johan Santana taking the mound tonight. Santana will try to beat the Dodgers for a second time this season, as he fired six shutout innings and allowed four hits with six strikeouts in a 4-0 victory on April 27 at Citi Field. The two-time AL Cy Young Award winner improved to 3-0 with an even stellar 0.44 earned run average in three career starts against Los Angeles.

Santana is 2-0 with a 0.58 ERA in his previous four starts and did not record a decision the last time out in Sunday's 4-3, 10-inning win at San Francisco. He limited the Giants to a run despite allowing eight hits in eight innings.

The left-hander is 7-5 with a 2.87 ERA in 20 overall starts this season and will try to even his road mark Friday night. Santana is 1-2 in 10 away starts this season.

Los Angeles has won two in a row since a six-game slide and got a big night from Matt Kemp, who homered and drove in both runs to lead the way. The Dodgers are five games behind San Diego for the lead in the National League West Division and have been getting solid pitching the past few games.

"It was a great outing and we certainly needed it," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said of Kuroda's outing. "It was a carbon-copy type of game from last night. Putting wins back to back is the most important thing."

Torre will pin tonight's pitching duties on Vicente Padilla, who will try to run his unbeaten streak to five games. Padilla is 3-0 with a 0.98 earned run average in his last four starts, but did not figure into the decision of a 5-4 loss on Sunday at St. Louis.

Padilla threw six scoreless innings before the bullpen imploded and remained at 4-2 in 10 starts this season. He has enjoyed pitching at Dodger Stadium this year, going 3-1 with a 2.20 earned run average in four starts.

The right-hander from Nicaragua has also experienced success against the Mets as evidenced by his 10-3 mark in 21 career games (12 starts).

New York, which is 7 1/2 games off the pace in the NL East, swept a three-game home series from LA back in late April and has won four of the past six matchups between the teams. The Dodgers won all three meetings with the Mets held at Chavez Ravine last year.

The Mets have lost 10 of 14 games in Hollywood since the 2007 season.

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Super Bowl XLIII Betting - Super Bowl 2009

Super Bowl 2009, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Let’s take a look at the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds and the betting line and figure out where they’ve been and where they are going to go.

MySportsbook.com put up the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds late on Sunday night with the Pittsburgh Steelers favored by 6.5 points and a total betting line at 47.5 points.

Since then, however, the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds have seen a good deal of movement and you’ll want to be on top of where they are likely to move to make sure you get the best line value for the big game.

Since opening, the Super Bowl 2009 betting lines went to Steelers -7 in the span of roughly 3 hours but were quickly bought back down just minutes later to 6.5 again.

After that is took about 5-6 more hours before the betting line went back to -7 where it has sat for a while now and is likely to remain. The opening betting total of 47.5 was bet down right after the line became available and went to 47 within minutes.

Roughly a day later it has been bet even further down to the 46.5 tally it currently is set at.

Roughly 60% of gamblers seem to be on the Cardinals here so the point spread will be bet down and a 7.5 would not last very long at all with many taking the early 6.5 in hopes of finding a potential middle in the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds.

If you like Arizona and see a 7.5, I’d take it as soon as possible because it’s unlikely to last. For Pittsburgh backers, the -7 might be the best you’ll be able to find but a 6.5 is definitely possible close to game time.

Regarding the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds for the total, most tracked gamblers are already on the over and with those who took the under 47.5 already securing a middle on the over 46.5, the only way I see it moving is back up to 47 so if you like the over, I’d recommend betting now.

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