Bannister helps Royals shut out Indians

Baseball Betting Lines

04/22/2009 - Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brian Bannister threw six strong innings to lead the Kansas City Royals in a 2-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians in the middle installment of a three-game set at Progressive Field.

Bannister (1-0), making his first start of the season in lieu of Doug Waechter (strained elbow), gave up four hits with two walks and a strikeout to get the win. He is now 4-1 with a 1.62 ERA in six career starts against the Indians. Joakim Soria tossed a scoreless ninth to get his fifth save of the year.

Willie Bloomquist went 1-for-3 and drove in a run for the Royals, who snapped a two-game slide. David DeJesus also had an RBI in the win, while Coco Crisp went 2-for-4 and scored a run. Mike Jacobs scored the other run for KC.

Reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee (1-3) was the hard- luck loser, as he went eight innings and was touched for just two runs on nine hits with five strikeouts and only one walk. Lee had his personal five-game win streak against the Royals snapped. Tony Sipp made a strong major league debut with a perfect ninth inning.

Victor Martinez went 2-for-4 to notch his ninth multi-hit game of the season for the Tribe, who have alternated wins and losses for the past six games.

The Royals grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Crisp led off with a double, moved to third as Mike Aviles flied out to right and crossed home when DeJesus offered a sac fly to right.

The offenses went dormant for the next few innings, until KC added another run in the seventh. Jacobs clubbed a one-out single and Alberto Callaspo followed with another base hit before Miguel Olivo popped out. Bloomquist then made it 2-0 with an RBI single back up the middle.

The Royals threatened again in the eighth. Billy Butler had a two-out single and Mark Teahen followed with a double to the gap in left-center. However, Trevor Crowe launched a throw to Jhonny Peralta, who relayed it to Kelly Shoppach at home to catch Butler trying to score.

Soria came on in the ninth to try and close it out for the Royals and got Travis Hafner to ground out, though Peralta drew a walk. Shin-Soo Choo, the potential tying run, added a single but Shoppach flied to left for the second out. During Crowe's at-bat a passed ball advanced both runners into scoring position, but Crowe was caught looking at the third strike to end the game.

Game Notes

It was KC's third shutout this season, which is the most in the American League...Lee, who went 22-3 with a 2.54 earned run average in 31 starts a year ago, opened the 2009 campaign with consecutive losses to Texas and Toronto before rebounding against the New York Yankees on Thursday. He only gave up one run at the new Yankee Stadium after allowing 11 over the previous two starts, and scattered seven hits in six innings of a 10-2 win. The veteran left-hander has pitched at least five innings in each outing this season and had owned the Royals throughout his career. Lee was 12-4 with a 4.47 ERA in 19 career starts against them coming in...Kansas City took two of three games from Cleveland last week at Kauffman Stadium and has won six of the last eight matchups between the teams.

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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.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

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