Jays begin series in Oakland
Baseball Betting Lines
08/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shaun Marcum hopes to put the brakes on a personal two- start losing streak this evening when the Toronto Blue Jays begin a three-game series against the Oakland Athletics at the Coliseum.
Marcum had closed the month of July with three straight wins, but has lost his initial two starts in August, surrendering 13 runs in 10 innings of those outings. His most recent setback came on Wednesday against Boston, which ripped him for eight runs and seven hits in four innings to drop him to 10-6 on the season, while raising his earned run average to 3.87.
"Marcum certainly didn't have his good stuff tonight," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "They kind of beat up on us."
Marcum beat Oakland back on May 2 and is 2-1 in five starts against the A's with a 3.54 ERA.
The Blue Jays pulled out a series win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Sunday, as Ricky Romero tossed seven solid innings to help Toronto to a 4-1 win.
Romero (10-7), who was signed to a five-year extension worth $30.1 million on Saturday, gave up a run on six hits with three walks and four strikeouts for the Blue Jays, who have won three of four. Adam Lind hit a solo home run while Aaron Hill drove in two runs in the win.
"I had my fastball, curve ball and cutter going good today," said Romero. "I stayed in the strike zone and got groundball outs. It worked out for the best today."
Oakland, meanwhile, enters tonight's opener on the heels of getting swept in a three-game set by the Minnesota Twins that culminated with a 4-2 loss on Sunday at Target Field.
Vin Mazzaro (6-5) was tagged for two runs (one earned) on seven hits over six- plus innings for the Athletics, who have dropped five of their last six. Coco Crisp and Kurt Suzuki each drove in a run in the loss.
"We've been playing well, but this was a tough series," said Crisp. "We felt like we could compete with them, but they got the best of us this series. They have a good ballclub all around over there. You have to be on top of your game when you play these guys and we weren't."
Hoping to turn things around for the A's this evening will be lefty Brett Anderson, who has lost two of his last three starts. Anderson endured a hard- luck loss on Tuesday in Seattle, as he allowed just a run and five hits in seven innings, but fell to 3-3 nonetheless, lowering his ERA to 2.88 on the year.
Anderson has never faced the Jays.
Toronto took three of four from Oakland earlier in the season.
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Big 12 Conference betting odds
Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State
Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.
Work left to do:
Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.
Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.
Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.