07/02/2006 - Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Travis Hafner's sixth career grand slam helped the Cleveland Indians top the Cincinnati Reds, 12-7, in the middle contest of their three-game interleague series at Great American Ball Park.
Cliff Lee (8-5) followed up an impressive June with another win, allowing four runs on nine hits with one walk and three strikeouts in six innings.
Ronnie Belliard and Victor Martinez both had two hits and two runs scored for the Indians, who snapped a two-game losing streak.
Right-hander Joe Mays (0-5), who made his second start with the Reds, gave up eight runs on 11 hits with two strikeouts and four walks in five innings. Ken Griffey Jr., Austin Kearns and Ryan Freel homered for the Reds, who had a three-game winning streak broken.
Cleveland got on the board right away with one run in the first. Belliard doubled and later scored on a Ben Broussard double to left field.
The Indians added two more runs in the second. Aaron Boone walked and Franklin Gutierrez and Cliff Lee singled to load the bases with no outs. Grady Sizemore then walked to force home Boone, and Jhonny Peralta singled home Gutierrez.
The Tribe missed an opportunity to do more damage, as with the bases still juiced, Martinez grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Cincinnati tied the game in the fourth with three runs on one play. Rich Aurilia doubled, Brandon Phillips singled and Jason LaRue got intentionally walked. Mays then cleared the bases with a double to right field to tie the game.
Cleveland regained control right away in the fifth by scoring five quick runs. Peralta, Martinez and Broussard singled, and Todd Hollandsworth grounded a run-scoring single. Boone got intentionally walked to reload the bases for Hafner, who belted a grand slam over the wall in center field.
Cincinnati started to rally in the home half when Griffey smacked a solo shot to right field on a 2-0 pitch.
The Indians tacked on two more runs in the seventh. Boone walked and Joe Inglett doubled, and Ryan Garko doubled them both home on a ground ball to left field.
The Reds scored two more runs in the seventh when Aurilia singled and Kearns homered him home on a 2-0 pitch to left field.
Cleveland kept pushing, however, with two more runs in the eighth. Belliard doubled and Martinez walked. Hollandsworth then singled home Kearns and Boone singled home Martinez.
Freel homered to center field on a 1-0 pitch in the eighth for the final margin.
Game Notes
The Reds took two of three from Cleveland last week, but Cleveland has won 10 of the last 17 encounters...Cincy is 61-77 all-time in interleague play, while the Indians are 92-82 against the National League...Mays is now 0-8 against Cleveland...Hafner's four grand slams in a season ties the franchise record with Al Rosen in 1951.
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=== Blues ink McKee; re-sign Drake ===
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Blues added unrestricted free
agent defenseman Jay McKee on Saturday, and re-signed forward Dallas Drake.
The 28-year-old McKee h
Teahen's extra inning blast propels Royals over Cards >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Teahen smacked a home run in the 11th
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of a three-game set at Busch Stadium.
Teahen knocked in four runs while David DeJ
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Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Flyers announced the
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Baumgartner agreed to terms on a two-year contract, while Jonsson inked a
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A.J. Burnett hopes to make it two straight wins this
afternoon when the Toronto Blue Jays try and complete a three-game sweep of
the Philadelphia Phillies at the Rogers Centre.
Burnett returned from the disabled list in im
JUPITER, Fla. -- The Foorida Marlins are preparing for the likelihood that right-hander
Josh Johnson won't be ready when the season starts April 2.
Grapefruit League action starts Wednesday, but Johnson, penciled in as the No. 2 starter, hasn't even thrown off a mound at full speed since September. He's experienced some soreness in his right forearm.
MySportsbook.com have the Marlins listed with baseball betting lines at +800 to win the NL East this season .
''You guys know the math. If he's not on the hill then he becomes an opening day roster issue,'' manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday. ''We're borderline now.''
Johnson, who finished 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 2007, was supposed to throw on flat ground Saturday. That was canceled when he woke up with pain.
He played catch on Wednesday with no pain but felt discomfort in a throwing session on Thursday. He's expected to try again Sunday.
''Like we always said from the very beginning, we're going to take it easy on him,'' Gonzalez said. ''He didn't feel right, so we shut him down. We're going to take it back to step one and see where we're at.''
Among the candidates to take Johnson's spot in the rotation are left-hander Chris George and right-handers Yusmeiro Petit and Jose Garcia.
Right-hander Sergio Mitre, who missed most of last season with arm and shoulder problems, also is behind.
With Johnson's status doubtful, Gonzalez said right-hander Ricky Nolasco will stay in the rotation and no longer will be considered a candidate for closer.
Additional basbeall odds can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com
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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.
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.
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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