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09/03/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kenshin Kawakami returns to the Atlanta Braves this evening, as they try to hold onto their dwindling advantage in the National League East in the opener of a three-game set against the Florida Marlins at Sun Life Stadium.
Kawakami, who will be filling in for the injured Derek Lowe, has not pitched in the majors since a relief appearance back on July 16, but was 1-9 in 15 starts. Lowe has been battling elbow pain and received a cortisone shot last weekend.
"I didn't think I was going to miss a start," said Lowe, who should resume pitching in a few days. "So I can't say it's going to feel better in three days, a week or whenever. It's unfortunate. It's [my] turn to pitch, and I've never missed [a start]. But you've got to be honest with yourself and true to your team."
Kawakami, who has pitched to a 4.75 earned run average in his 16 big league appearances this season, had been 0-1 with a 4.29 earned run average in five starts for Triple-A Gwinnett.
The Japanese right-hander lost to the Marlins earlier in the year and is just 1-4 lifetime against them with a 5.55 ERA in five games, four of which have been starts.
Atlanta was denied a sweep in its four-game set with the New York Mets on Thursday, as it dropped a 4-2 decision in the finale on Thursday at Turner Field. Brian McCann went 3-for-4 with a solo home run while Martin Prado drove in the other run for the Braves, who had a five-game winning streak stopped.
Tim Hudson (15-6), who was named the National League Pitcher of the Month earlier in the day on Thursday, had a six-game winning streak halted as he was charged with four runs -- three earned -- on eight hits with a walk and four strikeouts over seven innings.
The loss shortened Atlanta's lead in the NL East to two games over Philadelphia, which held off Colorado on Thursday for a 12-11 win.
"It's tight out there," said Hudson about the playoff race. "We knew that the Phillies weren't going to go away. We just gotta go out there and keep playing and just keep doing what we do."
Florida, meanwhile, will need a strong showing this weekend if it wants to keep its fleeting postseason hopes alive. The Marlins enter the weekend set 10 games back of the Braves in the division and eight behind the wild card- leading Phillies.
The Marlins rolled to a 16-10 win against Washington on Wednesday, but the game will likely be remembered for a wild brawl that took place in the sixth inning when Nationals center fielder Nyjer Morgan charged the mound and punched Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad.
Both players were ejected.
Florida was ahead 15-5 with one out in the inning when Volstad threw a pitch behind Morgan, who was hit on the right side by an offering in the fourth frame. The Marlins were ahead 14-3 in the fourth, but Morgan stole second and third base during the inning.
In the sixth, though, Morgan became upset and immediately threw down his bat and charged the mound. Volstad tossed down his glove and Morgan connected with a left to the pitcher's neck.
Marlins first baseman Gaby Sanchez then raced in and delivered a clothes-line hit to Morgan, who immediately tumbled to the ground. Players for both teams scuffled near the mound and then Pat Listach, the third base coach for the Nationals, joined the fray by piling on Volstad and possibly throwing a punch.
"Obviously, he's not coming out there to talk," Volstad said. "I had to defend myself and not to get hurt."
Suspensions and fines should be handed out on Friday.
"I've been part of a few bench-clearings, and this one was pretty up there as far as the amount of intensity and physical actions on the field," Helms said. "It's going to happen. It's part of the game. It's not a bad thing, it's just going to happen, it doesn't happen often. Tonight was one of those nights where it got out of hand."
Heading to the hill for the Marlins this evening will be left-hander Andrew Miller, who has yet to record a decision in three appearances (one start) this season, but has pitched to a 4.50 ERA. Miller last pitched out of the bullpen on Monday against Washington and yielded a run in one inning of work.
Miller has faced the Braves six times (three starts) and is 2-0 against them with a 3.32 ERA.
On the injury front, the Marlins could get second baseman Dan Uggla back this weekend. Uggla, who has been hampered by a groin strain, is one home run shy of 30, which would make him the first second baseman in Major League history to reach the mark four seasons in a row.
He is 4-for-9 lifetime against Kawakami with a home run and three walks.
Atlanta has won seven of its 12 matchups with the Marlins this season.
<< Red-hot Yankees eye seventh straight win vs. Jays
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Yankees hoped to be playing their best
baseball in September, and the early returns of this month seem to indicate
they may have reached that goal.
The defending world champions set their sights
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Ramir
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shin-Soo Choo and the Cleveland Indians look to remain in
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Seattle Mariners tonight from Safeco Field.
Choo stroked a three-run double during a fou
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Athletics are coming off a beating in the Bronx
and are back in the Bay Area to kick off a nine-game homestand starting with
Friday's opener of a three-game series versus the Los Angeles Angels of
Anaheim.
The
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His tra
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WVU's Devine ready for senior year >>
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -Noel Devine stayed in school just for this.Rather than take a chance on the NFL draft last April, Devine is returning for one final season in which he believes ``the sky is the limit.''Liftoff starts Saturday when No. 25 West
No. 8 Nebraska goes down to wire with QB call >>
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -Nebraska fans haven't forgotten that one-point loss to Texas in the Big 12 championship game and they're still celebrating next year's move to the Big Ten.But the biggest topic of conversation in Big Red country has been about wh
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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