Castro leads home run parade as ChiSox extend home win streak
Baseball Betting Lines
07/30/2010 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ramon Castro homered twice and Juan Pierre stroked a two-run double, as the Chicago White Sox beat Seattle, 9-5, to sweep a four-game series and extend their home winning streak to 11 games.
Paul Konerko and Carlos Quentin clubbed back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning for the White Sox, who won for the 18th time in their last 19 games at U.S. Cellular Field.
Ichiro Suzuki doubled three times and scored three runs for Seattle, which finished 1-9 against Chicago this season.
Ichiro doubled to begin the game and scored on Casey Kotchman's one-out double. Kotchman drove in Ichiro again, this time on a sacrifice fly in the third inning.
The White Sox loaded the bases with no outs against David Pauley (0-3) in the bottom of the third on two singles and a walk. Pierre then ripped a double down the left-field line to tie the game. Omar Vizquel followed with a run- scoring single and Chicago led 4-2 after Alex Rios grounded into a double play.
In the fourth, Castro homered to left field for a 5-2 advantage.
The Mariners got a run back in the sixth on a Michael Saunders RBI single, but Castro went deep again in the home half and Vizquel contributed a run-scoring single later in the inning to make it 7-3.
J.J. Putz, who had made a club-record 27 consecutive scoreless appearances, replaced Chicago starter Freddy Garcia (10-4) to begin the seventh and gave up an RBI double to Ichiro, who scored on a wild pitch to trim the deficit to 7-5.
Konerko and Quentin restored the four-run cushion by going back-to-back in the bottom of the inning. Konerko homered in all four games of this series.
Game Notes
Chicago is an MLB-best 33-11 since June 9...The White Sox recorded their first four-game home sweep of the Mariners since turning the trick from September 15-18, 1983...The Mariners have dropped eight straight road games against the White Sox...The last time the White Sox won at least 11 in a row at home was a 13-game streak from July 1-August 5, 1989 at Comiskey Park...Garcia gave up three runs on seven hits over six innings...Pauley allowed four runs and six hits in 2 2/3 innings...Konerko has 25 home runs this season.
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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.