Marcum throws gem as Blue Jays shut down A's
Baseball Betting Lines
08/17/2010 - Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shaun Marcum pitched his first career complete game, allowing just one hit in a 3-1 Blue Jays win over the Athletics.
Marcum (11-6) pitched no-hit ball through six innings before giving up a leadoff homer to Conor Jackson in the seventh. He walked just one and hit a batter while fanning five in the gem.
"There's no what-ifs," Marcum said of a possible no-hitter. "I'm one of those guys -- I don't have no-hit stuff. So, it's just a combination of going out there, keeping the ball down and going from there."
Jose Bautista hit his league-leading 37th home run of the season, an inside- the-parker, while Edwin Encarnacion added a two-run shot. Jose Molina went 4- for-4 in Toronto's fourth win in five games.
Brett Anderson (3-4) was the hard-luck loser after giving up three runs -- two earned -- on seven hits and a walk in six innings. The A's have now lost four in a row.
"Times like these are tough, but it's baseball. You get to play baseball for a living, it's not too bad. You have to come to the field and have fun every day," Anderson said.
The game was scoreless until the fourth, when Bautista led off the inning with a home run. The ball appeared to bounce off the low portion of the foul pole just above the left field wall, but the ball remained in play, and Bautista sprinted around the bases easily without a play at home.
In the fifth, Lyle Overbay began the frame by reaching on an error, and Encarnacion hammered an Anderson offering over the wall in left to give the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Marcum was dominant. He retired the first eight batters before hitting Cliff Pennington with a pitch. Pennington was subsequently caught stealing to end the third.
Marcum allowed a one-out walk in the fourth, but retired the other three hitters in the inning, and set down six of the next seven hitters to maintain the no-hitter through six innings. One Oakland batter reached on an error.
However, Marcum's no-hit bid came to end in the seventh, as Jackson blasted the first pitch of the inning for a home run to left-center, cutting the Athletics' deficit to two.
Marcum settled down, though, retiring the last nine batters he faced to polish off the victory.
Game Notes
Bautista has 11 homers in his last 20 games...Marcum had allowed 13 runs over 10 innings in his last two starts, both losses...The Athletics snapped a seven-game homerless skid with Jackson's shot. The team has not gone eight games without a HR since 1983...Toronto leads the season series, 4-1...Jackson was reinstated from the 15-day disabled list prior to the game. Additionally, outfielder Travis Buck was recalled from Triple-A Sacramento. To make room on the roster, Oakland optioned both infielder Jeff Larish and outfielder Chris Carter to Sacramento...Bautista recorded his second inside-the-park home run of the season.
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Super Bowl 2009 Betting
Super Bowl 2009 Betting propositionsUnderdog bettors love the Super Bowl and, history suggests, the underdogs love them back. And the big dogs bite harder.
Even so, there is a warning in store for Super Bowl gamblers who must love dogs: The Arizona Cardinals Super Bowl betting lines might not be enough of a Cinderella to make it worth your while.
Although the Cardinals were widely panned as one of the worst division winners and least playoff-worthy teams in recent memory, their trip to Super Bowl XLIII Jan. 31 in Tampa against the Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl betting lines comes with a little more respect from the oddsmakers than you might imagine. They are a 7-point underdog at most sports books.
If you count yourself among those who covet the big dog in the big game, this isn’t exactly great news. You should have been hoping for more points. This is because the facts show that the bigger the dog, the better the bet in the Super Bowl.
Case in point: Over the past 13 seasons, double-figure underdogs in the Super Bowl are 4-0-1 ATS and have won the past three outright. In fact, the last double-digit chalk to do the deed for bettors was the 1995 San Francisco 49ers, who managed to beat the astounding 19-point spot afforded backers of the San Diego Chargers in the 49-26 romp in Super Bowl XXIX.
By contrast, 7-point favorites are 2-1-1 ATS in the same span, the last such contest resulting a cover grinded out by the Colts in their 29-17 win over the Bears two seasons ago in Super Bowl XLI.
In 2004, the Patriots failed to cover the number in their 32-29 triumph over the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl props while the Rams and Titans gave everyone a refund in 2000 after the Rams posted a 23-16 win as a seven-point favorite.
So while Arizona’s run has included impressive upsets as a 10-point road underdog to the Carolina Panthers and Sunday’s 32-25 win in the NFC championship game to the 4-point favored Philadelphia Eagles, their long-shot story lacks a bit of the David vs. Goliath storyline of past Super Bowl underdogs.
While the seven-point spread represents a significant gap in the perception of strength between the two teams, it is far from monumental. For example, last season the Giants were the wild-card afterthought turned road-warrior buzzsaw, with stunning wins over the Buccaneers, Cowboys and Packers to earn their place in the Super Bowl.
There, they played spoiler to New England’s bid to become the first 19-0 team in NFL history and cemented their place in sports betting lore with a 17-14 win as a 12.5-point underdog.
In other words, the Cardinals appear to have their work cut out for them as a mid-range underdog. But in homage to the spread beaters who have come before them, here is a brief look back at recent colossal upsets in the Super Bowl:
SB XLII -- 2008 -- New York Giants 17, New England Patriots 14 (Giants +12.5) – Eli Manning’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress in the final minute clinched the historic upset for the Giants, who used a masterful defensive plan to slow down Tom Brady and the previously undefeated New England Patriots.
XXXVI -- 2002 -- Patriots 20, Rams 17 (Patriots +14) – This was the coming out party for the aforementioned Brady, who went from obscure sixth-round draft pick to Super Bowl hero in one fell swoop. He led the game-winning drive in the final minute – eschewing analyst John Madden’s advice to take a knee and play for overtime – leading to Adam Vinatieri’s memorable 48-yard field goal that split the uprights as time expired.
XXXII 1998 Broncos 31, Packers 24 (Denver +12) – The first of John Elway’s two consecutive Super Bowl titles to put an end to his Hall of Fame career was an upset for the ages. The Broncos used the determination of Elway and a 157-yard, three-touchdown performance from Terrell Davis to turn back Brett Favre and the heavily favored Packers.
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