AL Central-leading Twins visit Indians
Baseball Betting Lines
09/10/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Twins take a growing lead atop the American League Central's Division into a six-game road trip that begins with tonight's matchup with the Cleveland Indians from Progressive Field.
The red-hot Twins just concluded a latest homestand by ripping off six consecutive victories and have won 11 of their past 13 contests to increase their margin over second-place Chicago in the Central standings. With the White Sox losing at Detroit on Thursday, Minnesota now owns a season-high six- game advantage for the division's top spot.
Following this three-game set against the Indians, the Twins will travel to Chicago for three straight meetings with the White Sox beginning Tuesday.
Minnesota will be entering Progressive Field off a three-game sweep of Kansas City capped off by Wednesday's 4-3 decision. The Twins scored three times in the bottom of the fifth inning to erase a 1-0 deficit, then staved off a Royals' rally in the ninth to prevail.
Denard Span knocked in two of the fifth-inning runs with a triple and Matt Tolbert added a RBI single for Minnesota. J.J. Hardy finished with two hits, including a solo home run, and scored twice to help back another strong outing from Twins starter Brian Duensing.
Duensing (8-2) worked the first eight innings and held the Royals to one run and six hits while striking out seven to improve to 5-1 as a starter this season.
"[Duensing] was good. His changeup was really good," said Kansas City manager Ned Yost. "The guys kept coming back [to the dugout] and were saying they could see [the changeup] good, they just couldn't wait on it."
Matt Capps picked up his 11th save since coming to the Twins in a midseason trade in Wednesday's win, despite letting up a pair of runs in the top of the ninth. The Royals brought the tying run to second base against the former Washington closer, but he retired pinch-hitter Mitch Maier on a game-ending fly ball to kill the comeback attempt.
Minnesota will send out one of its best road pitchers to open up this trip in 16-game winner Carl Pavano. The veteran righty has posted a very solid 3.20 earned run average in 15 starts away from home this season, while winning eight of 14 decisions.
Pavano was mired in a three-start losing streak that included back-to-back road setbacks to Texas and Seattle to close out August, but was able to return to the win column in last Saturday's 12-4 triumph over the Rangers in Minneapolis. The oft-injured hurler lasted eight innings that night and allowed three runs while scattering eight hits.
The 34-year-old, who made 21 starts for the Indians before being traded to the Twins during August of last season, beat his former club by tossing seven innings of two-run ball in an August 7 clash at Progressive Field and is 2-1 with a 2.93 ERA over four lifetime starts against Cleveland.
Pavano will be opposed tonight by Fausto Carmona, who'll be seeking to end a string of six consecutive losing starts in the opener. The 2010 All-Star hasn't won since an August 2 verdict over Boston at Fenway Park, and his most recent victory at home took place on July 23. Carmona has been dealt defeats in each of his last five trips to the Progressive Field mound, and is just 5-9 with a 4.32 ERA at his home park for the season.
Carmona did pitch well enough to end his drought in a September 3 game at Seattle, limiting the Mariners to one run and four hits in an eight-inning complete game. However, the right-hander received no help from his offense and came out on the short end of a 1-0 decision.
The Dominican native's losing skid began in a head-to-head battle with Pavano at Progressive Field on August 7, with Carmona reached for five runs and 10 hits over 7 1/3 innings. The result continued his career-long struggles against the Twins, as the 26-year-old is 3-8 with a 5.52 ERA over 16 games (12 starts) versus Minnesota.
Cleveland returns home after going 4-3 on a seven-game West Coast swing. The Tribe had a chance to produce a series sweep over the fading Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Wednesday, but came up just short in a 4-3, 16-inning loss.
Torii Hunter led off Anaheim's half of the 16th with a double off Hector Ambriz and moved to third on a groundout before Jeff Mathis lofted a fly ball to right that was plenty deep enough to bring home the deciding run.
The Indians had sent the contest into extra innings by scratching home a run in the top of the ninth. Matt LaPorta started the rally with a leadoff single, with pinch-runner Luis Valbuena advancing on a Jason Donald base hit before racing home on Jayson Nix's single off Angels closer Fernando Rodney.
Andy Marte had a solo homer earlier on for Cleveland, while starting pitcher Josh Tomlin surrendered three runs and just three hits in a six-inning stint. Ambriz (0-2) pitched 3 1/3 innings in relief, permitting just the one run and a single hit.
Minnesota has won seven of 12 games against the Indians this season, including four of the six bouts held in Cleveland.
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Mayweather picked to beat De La Hoya
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and his rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. arrived at the MGM Grand here Wednesday amid the pomp and pandemonium befitting two of the biggest stars in the sport who are about to duke it out for the WBC super welterweight crown this Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
As of Wednesday, MySportsbook.com closed its book with Mayweather a favorite to defeat De La Hoya at -170 (a $100 bet wins $70), while De La Hoya is a +140 underdog (a $100 bet wins $140).
Mayweather arrived at about 11:30 a.m. on a big truck with his face and a big "World's Best Pound-for-Pound" sign scribbled across the vehicle. He was accompanied by his entourage made up of rappers and his training team.
A crowd of close to 3,000 eager fans packed the MGM Grand lobby, with their cameras in tow, all trying to vie for position to get a good angle at Mayweather, who is acknowledged as the world's best fighter pound-for-pound.
Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions vice-president, described the fan turnout as "amazing" and swore he had never seen anything quite like this event.
"The crowd was fantastic. Everybody was just too eager to see the two fighters," said ALA manager Michael Aldeguer, who was among those who waited at the lobby together with his ward Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and AJ Banal.
De La Hoya made his own grand entrance at the hotel lobby at around 12:30 p.m. accompanied by GBP chief executive officer Richard Schaefer and trainer Freddie Roach.
The same group of fans who trooped to see Mayweather also lingered around to get a close look at De La Hoya, who has been secretly working out at a Las Vegas gym for days after arriving from his main training camp in Puerto Rico.
The golden boy then took part in a closed-door afternoon workout with Bautista and Banal. The two, along with Aldeguer and wife Christine, as well as an HBO crew were the only ones allowed inside the gym.
De La Hoya and Mayweather take part in today's final press conference before the official weigh-in this Friday.
Ring Magazine, the acknowledged bible of boxing, reported in its June 2007 issue that 12 out of 20 boxing experts it interviewed have favored Mayweather to defeat De la Hoya, with only 8 favoring the latter.
But Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao said in a recent interview with The Freeman's Emmanuel Villaruel that De La Hoya will win by unanimous decision over Mayweather.
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