Braves shoot for series win over visiting Giants

Baseball Betting Lines

08/08/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Braves shoot for a series victory over the San Francisco Giants this afternoon, when the two playoff-hopeful clubs collide in the finale of a four-game set from Turner Field.

The National League East-leading Braves have won two of the first three meetings of this series and are coming off Saturday's 3-0 victory behind eight shutout innings from starter Tim Hudson. Hudson improved to 13-5 this season and struck out six batters, while Billy Wagner was able to record his 27th save. Wagner blew the save in Friday's 3-2 loss in 11 innings.

"Any time you bounce back from a loss is huge. Any starter, when you can get a nice lead in the game, it makes your job a lot easier. You can be aggressive and pound the zone and that's pretty much what I did," said Hudson.

Troy Glaus drove in two runs and Rick Ankiel had the other RBI for the Braves, who have won four of six games and lead the division by two games over the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phils lost to the New York Mets last night.

Atlanta will hand the ball to Derek Lowe this afternoon and he's 1-4 with a 4.50 earned run average in his last seven starts. Lowe did not record a decision in Tuesday's 3-2 loss versus the Mets, as he allowed just one run in six innings of work.

Lowe, who is 10-9 with a 4.44 ERA in 23 starts this season, has pitched well at home this season, going 7-3 in 11 trips to the Turner Field mound. He is 6-5 with a 3.00 ERA in 16 career starts against San Francisco and defeated the Giants back on April 10 this season at AT&T Park, where he fired six innings of one-run ball in his team's 7-2 victory.

San Francisco is still fighting for the top spot in the NL West, but Saturday's loss certainly spoiled any chances of pulling even with San Diego atop the division. The Padres also lost yesterday to maintain a one-game edge over the wild card-leading Giants, who have dropped three of four contests.

The Giants are 1 1/2 games ahead of Philadelphia and St. Louis in the NL Wild Card standings.

Matt Cain started for San Francisco last night and was dealt the loss for surrendering all three runs and six hits in five innings. Pat Burrell had the only extra-base hit with a double in defeat.

"I made a couple bad pitches. I left that pitch a little over the plate to (Jason) Heyward and Chipper (Jones) did a good job of fighting the ball off inside. It came down to one pitch at the end and I made the pitch I wanted to and he (Glaus) beat me with a ground ball up the middle," said Cain.

Jonathan Sanchez will try to build off a solid outing when he takes the ball Sunday for the visitors. Sanchez threw six shutout innings and scattered three hits with nine strikeouts in Tuesday's 10-0 destruction of Colorado.

Sanchez, a left-hander, evened his road mark at 3-3 in 11 tries and is 8-6 overall in 23 games (22 starts) in 2010. He faced Atlanta in a 5-4 win on April 9 this season and was reached for three runs over 4 1/3 innings for the no-decision. Sanchez is 1-2 with a 5.48 ERA in six career games, four of which have been starts, against the Braves.

The Giants took two of three at home from the Braves in April and have won nine of the last 15 meetings, though they did lose three of four at Turner Field a season ago.

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Albert Pujols to be This Year's Home Run Champ Says Online Sportsbook

Barry Bonds is a 50-1 long shot to be this year's home run champ odds.  The favorite to be this year's home run champ is none other than Albert Pujols, however.

Now that Barry Bonds is signed and in Giants camp, it is on to his pursuit of all of sports most prestigious records: the all-time home run mark. Bonds sits just 21 homers shy of tying Hank Aaron for the career mark at 755. Word out of Giants’ camp is that Bonds is the healthiest he has been in a few years. Bonds is just two seasons removed from his injury riddled 2005 campaign where he played in only 14 games and hit only 5 home runs. He did come back last year and had a solid season hitting .270 with 26 bombs. All eyes will be on Bonds this spring and summer not only because of his home run chase but his highly publicized steroid abuse allegations. If and when Bonds breaks the record, he surely will not get the positive attention one should for breaking a record that was once thought of as “unbreakable”. Despite Bonds decent season last year, he is just 50-1 at MySportsbook.com to lead the MLB in long balls this season.

Not surprisingly, the favorites to go deep the most times this season are Albert Pujols 5-1, Ryan Howard 6-1, David Ortiz 8-1 and Alex Rodriguez 12-1. With 49 homers, Pujols finished second in the National League behind Howard (58). Pujols is considered the favorite due to the consistent power numbers that he has posted since breaking into the league in 2001. Also one must consider the fact that he played in 16 fewer games then Howard did due to an injury. Howard smashed 58 homers in his first complete season of big league play en route to the National League MVP odds award. He silenced his critics by successfully hitting left-handed pitching. Howard also displayed the ability to use his power to the opposite field. Two attributes which should keep Howard amongst the league leaders in long balls for years to come. From the American League representatives, David Ortiz leads the field. Ortiz was second in the majors last year with 54 home runs. Except for 1999 when he only played in 10 games, Ortiz has improved on his home run numbers each year he has been in the majors (1997).

Be sure to log onto online sports betting site MySportsbook.com to check out the odds for who will lead the MLB in home runs this season. Below is just a sample of the players listed. With the highest credit card rates in the industry, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on baseball this summer.

World Series odds

Adam Dunn 15-1

Albert Pujols 5-1

Alex Rodriguez 12-1

Alfonso Soriano 15-1

Andruw Jones 25-1

Barry Bonds 50-1

Carlos Delgado 40-1

David Ortiz 8-1

Jermaine Dye 40-1

Ken Griffey Jr. 100-1

Lance Berkman 40-1

Manny Ramirez 20-1

Richie Sexson 40-1

Ryan Howard 6-1

Travis Hafner 20-1

Vladimir Guerrero 40-1

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.