Haren pitches, hits D-Backs past Reds
Baseball Betting Lines
06/30/2009 - Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dan Haren threw seven innings of one-run ball and added a double and solo home run at the plate to help snap the Diamondbacks' five-game losing streak with a 6-2 decision over the Reds.
Haren (7-5) struck out nine and gave up just four hits and a walk en route to lowering his National League-leading earned-run average to 2.19. The right- hander retired the first 11 hitters he faced and has allowed two runs or less in seven straight starts.
Miguel Montero and Mark Reynolds each had three hits and two RBI, with Montero's coming via the longball for Arizona, which had lost eight of nine overall.
Ramon Hernandez and Brandon Phillips each drove in a run for Cincinnati, while Bronson Arroyo (8-7) was touched for six runs -- five earned -- on 10 hits and four walks in 5 1/3 frames to take the loss, the club's sixth in nine games.
Arizona had a runner thrown out at home on two occasions early on. Jay Bruce threw out Chris Young from right field to end the second, and Jerry Hairston made a diving stop at third before nailing Haren at the plate an inning later.
The latter was the second out of the third, and Phillips' throwing error on a hit by Justin Upton put two runners in scoring position for Reynolds, whose broken-bat flare to left brought in a pair. Gerardo Parra then hit a comebacker through the middle for a 3-0 score.
Haren didn't allow a hit until Bruce's single with two outs in the fifth.
The ace turned slugger in the sixth, when he followed Montero's monstrous two- run homer with his first career round-tripper, barely clearing the left-field wall to make it a six-run game.
Back-to-back doubles by Laynce Nix and Hernandez got Cincinnati on the board in the seventh.
Tony Pena and Scott Schoeneweis combined to fill the bases with Reds in the eighth, but Jon Rauch came on to induce a meaningless sacrifice fly from Phillips and a weak pop out from Nix.
Chad Qualls retired the side in order to give the D-Backs a much-needed win.
Game Notes
The loss puts the Reds under .500 (37-38) for the season...Cincinnati swept a three-game series from the Diamondbacks in Phoenix from May 11-13 and had won five in a row and seven of its last eight matchups with Arizona...Upton had two hits for Arizona, which won despite leaving 10 runners on base...Phillips now has seven errors on the season.
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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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