Bruce's blast beats Bravos

Baseball Betting Lines

06/01/2008 - Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jay Bruce continued his scorching first week in the majors, going 2-for-3 with a solo homer and an RBI single, and the Reds capped a three-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves with a 6-2 win.

Ken Griffey Jr., who belted career home run No. 599 on Saturday, remained one shy of the 600 club, but did go 2-for-3 and scored a run. Johnny Cueto (4-5) didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning, and finished up letting up two runs on four hits with three strikeouts and a walk in seven frames.

Bruce has gone 13-for-22 with two home runs -- the first a game-ending shot in Saturday's 8-7, 10-inning win -- since being called up.

Adam Dunn also homered for the Reds, who swept the Braves in Cincinnati for the first time in 12 years, and have won five of six overall.

Tim Hudson (7-4) let up seven hits and four runs -- three earned -- with three strikeouts and three walks in seven-plus innings. Hudson left in the seventh with a strained left hamstring. Back-to-back homers by Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann in the seventh provided the only offense for the Braves, who went 1-5 on a road trip through Cincinnati and Milwaukee to fall to 7-21 on the road.

The Reds pulled away with three runs in the seventh. Edwin Encarnacion led off with a single to left, and Hudson pulled up lame after that pitch, limping around the mound and doubling over before leaving. A Paul Bako sac bunt, and a Yunel Escobar throwing error put runners at the corners, and Jerry Hairston Jr. executed a suicide squeeze bunt, plating one insurance run.

Bruce followed with a single to left, scoring another run. Griffey was issued an intentional walk, and Buddy Carlyle then walked Brandon Phillips before a wild pitch that allowed Bruce to score. Carlyle got out of the jam by intentionally walking Dunn to load the bases and getting Joey Votto to fly out to left, but the damage was already done.

The Braves got two men on with two outs in the ninth against Jared Burton, but pinch-hitter Ruben Gotay grounded out to first to end the game.

Dunn gave the Reds the early advantage with his lead-off blast in the second, a drive to the stands in right. Bruce gave the Reds a 2-0 lead with his second home run in as many days, a solo shot to right with one out in the third.

Griffey followed with a double to right, and came home on a Phillips double to center. Phillips was thrown out trying to head to third, though, and Dunn grounded out to end the inning.

Cueto breezed through the first five innings, retiring 19 of the first 20 batters, and no-hitting the Braves until Gregor Blanco reached on a bunt to lead off the sixth. The Atlanta lineup sprung to life in the seventh, though, on consecutive solo shots by Teixeira and McCann.

After a Chipper Jones groundout to start the frame, Teixeira went deep to right, his eighth of the season. McCann followed with another long fly ball to right, his 10th of the campaign, slicing the Cincinnati lead to 3-2. Jeff Francoeur roped a double to left, but Cueto bore down, getting Greg Norton to foul out and Blanco to fly out to center to hold the lead.

Game Notes

Hudson will be evaluated on Monday. Braves reliever Blaine Boyer left with an undisclosed injury later in the seventh after recording one out...The Reds have won 12 of 13 at home...The Braves were last swept in Cincinnati from September 2-4, 1996...This was Hudson's first career loss to the Reds. He had been 3-0 against the club.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

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