Cardinals start series in Atlanta

Baseball Betting Lines

09/09/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - When St. Louis and Atlanta last met in April, the Cardinals ran away with a four-game sweep at Busch Stadium. They will attempt to do that again in the first of four consecutive matchups tonight from Turner Field.

The Cardinals had lost three in a row to Atlanta before sweeping a four-game series from April 26-29, and are currently fighting for their playoff lives. St. Louis dropped the final two portions of a three-game series at Milwaukee and suffered an 8-1 setback in Wednesday's finale, as starter Jaime Garcia was roughed up for seven runs and seven hits in four innings.

Albert Pujols ended with a team-best two hits, including a home run in the first inning, for the Cardinals, losers in 11 of their last 15 games. The Cards are still six games behind Cincinnati for the National League Central lead and sit 6 1/2 games off the pace in the wild card race.

"It was kind of a weird night for us," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "We're getting shut down pretty regularly now."

La Russa's club is 1-2 on a seven-game road trip and has lost seven of its last eight contests as the visitor. Speaking of losses, Cardinals co-ace Adam Wainwright will try to stop a personal four-game losing streak when he takes the mound this evening. He had won three starts in a row before his recent slide and is coming off Saturday's 6-1 loss to the Reds in which he yielded five runs -- two earned -- and seven hits over five innings.

Wainwright fell to 17-10 in 29 starts to go along with a 2.34 ERA. The All- Star righty is also 6-8 in 15 starts away from Busch Stadium this season. He beat Atlanta during the four-game sweep on April 29, hurling six innings of three-run ball in a 10-4 victory. Wainwright is 5-0 with a 2.00 ERA in eight career matchups (5 starts) with the Braves.

Atlanta is hoping a return home will cure its recent woes, despite salvaging the finale of a three-game in Pittsburgh with Wednesday's 9-3 victory.

Derek Lowe has won all 10 of his career starts against the Pirates after he held the hosts to just a run on eight hits in six innings. Lowe also had a hit and two runs scored, while Martin Prado, Derrek Lee and Alex Gonzalez each drove in a pair of runs for the current wild card-leading Braves, who had lost three straight and five of six games before the six-run triumph.

"I felt good," Lowe said. "There was never any issue of any pain and the game pretty much came down to one pitch in the first inning. We got three runs and they came back and loaded the bases, and it came down to the pitch to Ryan Doumit and I was able to make it and then we just kept piling on."

The Braves' recent slump allowed Philadelphia to take back the top spot in the NL East, as the Phillies hold a half-game lead over Atlanta for division bragging rights. Atlanta is two games in front of San Francisco for the final postseason berth in the Senior Circuit.

Atlanta will also host Washington for three games in Dixie and is an impressive 49-19 at Turner Field this season. It will send Jair Jurrjens to the mound Thursday and he's 4-0 with a 3.38 ERA in his last seven starts. He threw seven shutout innings and gave up three hits in Saturday's 2-0 win at Florida, improving to 7-4 in 18 outings this season.

Jurrjens lost to the Cardinals in late April and is 1-3 with a 3.27 ERA in four career starts against them. The right-hander, however, will put his 6-0 home record on the line tonight.

Wwwlbetonsports Baseball Betting News

<< Rockies go for sweep of Reds
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The red-hot Colorado Rockies look to sweep a four-game set from the Cincinnati Reds when the two teams collide tonight in the series finale from Coors Field. Colorado has won six straight overall and recorded a 9-2 victory

<< NL West supremacy on line in San Diego
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - First place in the National League West will be on the line as the top two teams in the division, San Francisco and San Diego, kick off an important four-game series tonight at Petco Park. The Padres currently lead the div

<< Brady involved in car accident
Foxboro, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was involved in a car accident Thursday morning in Boston. The Patriots confirmed the news on their Twitter feed and added that Brady was not hospitalized and was e

<< Serie A needs Milan to succeed
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In case you haven't noticed, Italian soccer is not exactly flourishing. Yes, the national team won the World Cup four years ago, and Serie A side Inter Milan became the first Italian team to win

<< Saints, Vikes kick off NFL season with championship-level rematch
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Orleans Saints will begin the first title defense in their 43-year history on Thursday night, when Drew Brees and company host Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL's 2010 lid-lifter from the Louisiana Supe

Rangers, Blue Jays conclude set in Toronto >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Colby Lewis tries to put the breaks on a personal seven- game losing streak this evening when the Texas Rangers conclude a four-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Lewis hasn't won since Jul

Tigers eye series win over White Sox >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Tigers try to play spoiler this afternoon and go for a series win when they wrap up a four-game set against the playoff hopeful Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park. The White Sox won the first seven gam

Dodgers take losing streak into Houston >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Dodgers try to avoid a season-high sixth consecutive loss this evening when they open a four-game series against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. The Dodgers' playoff chances took a big hit th

NBA opens office in Moscow >>
Moscow, Russia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The National Basketball Association has opened a new office in Moscow, as announced by deputy commissioner and COO Adam Silver on Thursday. Moscow joins the ever-expanding international umbrella ho

NCAA steps up and cracks down >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The old adage "better late than never" does not always ring true. However, after years of turning a blind eye to the seedy practices at play in college sports, the NCAA has recently gone on a crusade for whic

Football Betting Sportsbook Accepts Credit Cards

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.

Bet 2010 Super Bowl Odds

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.

RSS Sports Betting Odds Feeds

Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.