NL West-leading Padres resume trip at Pittsburgh

Baseball Betting Lines

07/23/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Diego Padres have had a rough go of it lately on the road. A trip to Pittsburgh, though, could be just what they need, as the Padres open a three-game series against the Pirates tonight at PNC Park.

The Padres, who are 25-20 away from home this season, enter tonight's affair having dropped two of three in Atlanta and are 3-6 in the last nine games away from home. However, San Diego has traditionally thrived in the Steel City, where it hasn't lost a series since 2001.

San Diego's lead atop the National League West stands at three games over the San Francisco Giants, despite the series loss in Atlanta that culminated with an 8-0 setback on Thursday.

Clayton Richard (7-5) was tagged for nine hits and four runs (three earned) in six innings for the Padres, who were coming off Wednesday's come-from-behind 6-4 triumph in 12 innings.

"Definitely the first few innings I threw a lot more balls than I wanted to," said Richard. "When you're pounding the strike zone, good things usually happen. When you don't it's usually the opposite. That was the case the first three innings today."

Tonight the Padres turn to righty Kevin Correia, who is 6-6 with a 5.22 ERA. Correia beat the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, holding them to three runs and seven hits in six innings. The victory was his first in eight starts, but the Padres are 7-3 in his last 10 outings.

Correia has faced the Pirates six times (three starts) and is 1-1 with a 3.26 ERA.

Pittsburgh, meanwhile, was denied a series sweep against Milwaukee, falling 3-2 in Thursday's finale.

Ross Ohlendorf (1-8) was the hard-luck loser, allowing one run on five hits and a walk to go with six strikeouts for Pittsburgh, which lost for only the second time in its last six tries. Neil Walker went 2-for-3 and drove in both Pirates runs in the loss.

"You give up one run in six innings you can feel pretty good about it, especially against a pretty good offensive club," Pirates manager John Russell said of Ohlendorf's outing.

Pittsburgh had outscored Milwaukee 26-12 in the first two games of the set.

A big reason for that offensive outburst by the Pirates was the play of rookie third baseman Pedro Alvarez, who is hitting .417 (10-for-24) with four home runs, nine RBI and seven runs scored in six games since the All-Star break.

Alvarez homered four times in the first two games against the Brewers, as he became just the second player in the majors this season to homer twice in consecutive games.

Hoping for that kind of support tonight will be left-hander Paul Maholm, who didn't need any runs the last time he pitched. Maholm tossed a three-hit shutout to beat the Houston Astros on Sunday to run his record to 6-7 on the year, while lowering his ERA to 4.03.

Maholm, though, is 0-2 in three starts against the Padres with a 3.05 ERA.

San Diego is 8-3 in its last 11 trips to Pittsburgh.

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College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

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