Cards continue season-opening road trip in Milwaukee

Baseball Betting Lines

04/09/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals continue an early-season road trip with a stop at Milwaukee's Miller Park, a venue where the reigning National League Central champions garnered their share of success a year ago, for a three-game series with the division-rival Brewers that begins tonight.

St. Louis amassed a 45-36 road record en route to last season's playoff appearance and won all three of its series with the Brewers held in Milwaukee, including a three-game sweep back in September. The Cardinals went 7-2 at Miller Park in 2009.

The teams did split 18 overall matchups last year, however, and Milwaukee is 16-10 over its last 26 meetings with St. Louis.

The Cardinals head to Milwaukee after starting their 2010 campaign with a pair of victories in Cincinnati, although the club couldn't deliver a three-game sweep after losing a close contest on Thursday. The Reds salvaged the finale with a 2-1 decision in which Jonny Gomes produced the winning run with a solo homer off reliever Jason Motte in the bottom of the ninth inning.

St. Louis tied the game at 1-1 on Matt Holliday's solo home run to begin the seventh inning, one of only four hits for the Redbirds on the afternoon. Both he and leadoff hitter Skip Schumaker finished 2-for-4 in the loss.

On a more positive note, Brad Penny delivered a strong performance in his first start as a Cardinal. The hard-throwing righty, signed by St. Louis as a free agent over the winter, worked seven innings and yielded just one run on six hits while striking out four batters in a sharp 100-pitch effort.

"[Catcher Jason] LaRue did a great job," said Penny afterward. "I didn't have to shake that much. We were on the same page and when I did shake him, he knew right where I wanted to go."

St. Louis starters combined for a 2.25 earned run average over the three-game series, giving Kyle Lohse a tough act to follow when he makes his season debut tonight. The right-hander will also be motivated to atone for an injury- plagued 2009 in which he slumped to a 6-10 record with a 4.74 ERA and was limited to 22 starts.

Lohse was noticeably better the previous year, when the 31-year-old won a career-best 15 games for the Cardinals and posted a respectable 3.78 ERA over 200 innings.

The California native did lose both his starts against Milwaukee last season and had a 4.91 ERA in three 2009 appearances versus tonight's opponent. For his career, Lohse is 2-3 with a 4.96 ERA over six encounters with the Brewers.

Milwaukee also had a successful beginning to the season, taking the final two tests of a three-game set with visiting Colorado. The Brewers needed to rally to prevail in Wednesday's finale, but came through with a 5-4 verdict thanks to a two-run sixth inning and strong work out of the team's relief corps.

The Brewers trailed 4-1 after three innings but pulled within one with single runs in the fourth and fifth. After George Kottaras' sacrifice fly in the sixth plated ex-Cardinal Jim Edmonds with the tying run, Jody Gerut smacked a pinch-hit RBI double to give Milwaukee a 5-4 edge.

The Milwaukee bullpen made the lead stand by holding the Rockies scoreless over the final three innings, with Trevor Hoffman tossing a 1-2-3 ninth to notch the 593rd save of his brilliant career.

Todd Coffey picked up the win with two scoreless frames after replacing an ineffective Doug Davis, who was reached for four runs before exiting after just four innings. In all, six Milwaukee relievers teamed up for five shutout innings and allowed just two Colorado hits.

"This was truly a team effort," Gerut remarked. "There weren't a lot of guys that didn't contribute."

The Brewers would love to give Dave Bush the same kind of support when he makes his first start of the young season this evening. The right-hander is coming off a poor 2009, but managed to earn himself a spot in the Milwaukee rotation with a solid showing in spring training.

Bush will be aiming to improve off some suspect numbers from a year ago, with the Wake Forest product going just 5-9 with an ugly 6.38 ERA over 22 games (21 starts). He also missed a good portion of the second half with an injured triceps.

The 30-year-old lost both his starts against the Cardinals last season and is just 2-6 with a 6.65 ERA over eight career bouts with St. Louis. He also struggled pitching at home in 2009, as his 1-5 record and 5.98 ERA in 11 Miller Park mound trips will attest.

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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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