Blue Jays try to continue mastery of Orioles

Baseball Betting Lines

07/27/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Plenty of teams have given the Baltimore Orioles trouble over the course of this season, but none has proven to be a tougher opponent than the Toronto Blue Jays.

Having won all 10 meetings between the American League East foes so far in 2010, Toronto will attempt to extend that astounding streak when it continues a three-game series with the hapless Orioles tonight at the Rogers Centre.

The Blue Jays maintained their recent mastery over Baltimore with a 9-5 triumph in Monday's opener of this set. The win was also Toronto's ninth in a row against the Orioles at the Rogers Centre, where Baltimore has now lost in 14 of its last 15 visits.

Toronto used its trademark power to prevail last night, with Jose Bautista, Aaron Hill and Adam Lind all hitting homers to pace a 13-hit attack. Bautista's blast, a three-run shot off O's starter Brad Bergesen in the fifth inning, gives the 2010 All-Star a major league-best 28 round-trippers this season.

Lind had a solo homer later in the fifth and finished 3-for-4 with two RBI, while Hill had two hits and knocked in three runs to help the Blue Jays to their third win in four games.

"It's been a season of adjustments and trying to figure things out, hopefully, it's starting to come together," said Lind, who's still batting a subpar .222 for the year. "It's been tough, a lot of work. I'm just going to come back [Tuesday] and try to do it all over again."

Jays starter Brandon Morrow (7-6) added six solid innings on the mound to win on his 26th birthday, with the hard-throwing righty holding Baltimore to two runs and striking out six batters.

Bergesen (3-9) wasn't nearly as effective, as the Blue Jays pounded the second-year major-leaguer for eight runs and 10 hits over the first five innings.

"It was a tough one tonight," said Bergesen afterward. "Obviously, that's one you want to get done with and put it behind you. They jumped on me in the fourth inning and got the timely hits they needed."

Baltimore did homer three times in its latest loss, with Matt Wieters going deep twice and driving in three runs. Luke Scott, named the AL's Player of the Week on Monday, had a two-run shot in defeat.

The Blue Jays have now swatted 152 homers on the season, far and away the most of any team in the majors. Twenty-one of them have come in the club's 10 wins over Baltimore.

Ricky Romero has had a hand in two of Toronto's victories over the Orioles this season, and the talented young hurler was quite impressive in both of those outings. The left-hander, who draws the assignment for the Jays this evening, fired a complete-game six-hitter in a 6-1 besting of Baltimore at the Rogers Centre back in May, then yielded just two unearned runs over seven sharp innings to deal the O's another loss on July 16.

Although he won 13 times during a strong rookie campaign in 2009, Romero did have the same success against Baltimore he's enjoyed this season. The former first-round pick went 0-2 with a 5.47 earned run average in four encounters with the Orioles last year, while surrendering five homers in a combined 26 1/3 innings.

Romero followed up his July 16 victory over the Orioles by working a solid seven innings this past Thursday, even though it resulted in a loss to the Detroit Tigers. The 25-year-old was touched for three runs on seven hits that day.

Kevin Millwood gets the call for Baltimore tonight, with the seasoned veteran set to make his second start since returning from a short stint on the disabled list. He managed to pitch 6 1/3 innings in the comeback appearance, but was still hung with a loss after allowing five runs to the Minnesota Twins last Thursday.

The defeat brought Millwood's 2010 record to 2-9 and raised his ERA to 5.82, the highest of his 14-year tenure in the majors. Two of those setbacks have come at the hands of the Blue Jays, including a May 28 loss at the Rogers Centre in which the 35-year-old was reached for five runs (four earned) and gave up a pair of homers over six innings.

Millwood has struggled on the road throughout the year, bringing a 1-5 ledger with a 5.82 ERA in nine away starts into tonight's clash.

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2007 online football betting Preview

My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."

The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.

To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.

However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.

Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.

Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.

Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.

2007 College Football Betting Preview

There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.

The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.

So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.

USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.

USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.

Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.

That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.

The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"

The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.

Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.

Las Vegas Sports Lines

The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.

It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."

The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.

The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.

Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.

After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.

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