ChiSox win ninth straight, edge Twins

Baseball Betting Lines

07/16/2010 - Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gordon Beckham hit a solo home run and drove in two as the Chicago White Sox took an 8-7 win over the Minnesota Twins to begin the second half of the season.

Juan Pierre went 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored while Alex Rios added a pair of sacrifice flies for the White Sox, who are on a nine-game winning streak.

John Danks (9-7) went six innings in the win as he was charged with six runs on nine hits with a pair of walks and five strikeouts.

Since June 8, Chicago has won 26 of its last 31 games to surge into first place in the AL Central, one game ahead of Detroit.

Joe Mauer hit a three-run double and went 3-for-5 with a run scored while Denard Span, J.J. Hardy and Nick Punto each had an RBI and a run scored for the Twins, who have dropped five of their last six.

Kevin Slowey was tagged for five runs on nine hits in just three-plus innings. Alex Burnett (1-2) was tagged the loss for giving up three runs in an inning of work.

Chicago plated two runs in the first inning on sacrifice flies from Rios and Carlos Quentin. The White Sox then doubled their lead in the second as Beckham homered and another sac fly from Rios brought home Juan Pierre for a 4-0 lead.

Minnesota, though, surged ahead in the bottom of the second with a six-run frame. With two outs and two on, Hardy, Punto and Span each hit RBI singles. After Orlando Hudson walked to load the bases, Mauer cleared them with a double to left for a 6-4 lead.

Chicago got one back in the fourth when Alexei Ramirez led off with a double and came home when Beckham followed with a single to make it a 6-5 game.

The White Sox then went back on top in the fifth. With men on first and third, Burnett was called for a balk and Quentin came home. A.J. Pierzynski followed with a double to score Mark Kotsay and later scored on a Pierre groundout for an 8-6 lead.

Minnesota got a leadoff double from Orlando Hudson to start the seventh, but the team was unable to bring him home as the next three batters recorded outs.

The Twins then loaded the bases in the eighth with three consecutive two-out singles, but Bobby Jenks was summoned from the bullpen and struck out Hudson to end the inning.

Mauer doubled off of Jenks to start the ninth and Delmon Young brought him home with a two-out single to make it a one-run game, but Jenks got Jim Thome looking at strike three to pick up his 20th save of the season.

Game Notes

Each team has won three games in the season series thus far...Gavin Floyd takes the mound for Chicago on Friday and will be opposed by Francisco Liriano...Danks improved to 5-6 against the Twins.

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Betting Football

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Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.