By Craig Macleish - San Jose, Costa Rica
It was men amongst boys in last night’s Interleague online betting affair between the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers...
The Palehose took their frustration from its weekend set with the Cubs out on Joe Torre’s Dodgers who tallied one run in the top of the first inning and made the lead hold up to take Game 1 of the set by a 6-1 final count. Mark Buehrle pitched superbly once again limiting LA to just one run and six hits through eight innings of work to earn his fifth victory of the season.
MLB bettors cashed a rare road ticket backing the Southsiders who improved its record as a visitor to 18-23 on the year, and they also managed to hold onto their 1.5-game lead over the red hot Minnesota Twins who got the best of Jake Peavy and the San Diego Padres in PetCo last night.
The betting public continues to take a bath backing the Dodgers who’ve now dropped six of their L/10 and 18 of its L/27 overall contests. With last night’s loss, they now sit 19-18 at Dodgers Stadium and have cost their wagering supporters close to $500.00 on the season whenever an opponent invaded Chavez Ravine.
That said the hottest team in the division is the Colorado Rockies (5-5 L/10) so the Dodgers still sit just four-games in back of the Arizona Diamondbacks for the top spot in the NL West. Injuries have crippled this club throughout the season that currently ranks 13th in the National League in runs scored, 14th in RBIs, and 15th in home runs, but Nomar Garciaparra and Rafael Furcal both seem to be on the fast track towards getting back into the line-up. A brighter future looks to be in store for this club once that happens, but for now, they’ll continue to struggle scoring without them.
Taking the bump for the Palehose for the 15th time this season will be Chicago’s Gavin Floyd who notched a hard fought victory against Pittsburgh his last time out. He got roughed up for six hits and seven runs (1 earned) but managed to go 5 2/3rd innings and got an unusual amount of run support from his offense to secure his eighth victory of the season. He currently stands 8-3 with a 3.19 ERA and 1.10 WHIP allowing 66 hits and 44 runs (32 earned) with a K/BB ratio of 55/33 in just over 90 total innings of work. On the road, he’s 3-2 with a 4.01 ERA and 1.37 WHIP. He made two career starts against the Dodgers when he was a member of the Philadelphia Phillies back in 2006 (0-2 13.49 ERA), but is yet to face them as a member of the White Sox.
Lefty Eric Stults did a fabulous job in his spot start against Cincinnati for the injured Brad Penny limiting the Reds to six hits and one earned run through six innings of work to earn his first “big league” victory since August of last season. Stults has been around the block before, starting seven games and appearing in 18 the past two years in Los Angeles, but compiled ERAs of 5.60 in 2006 and 5.82 in 2007. The 28-year-old lefty went 5-6 with a 3.59 ERA in 14 starts in Vegas earlier this year, but with Kuroda and Penny expected back soon and the injured Jason Schmidt (shoulder surgery) looming as a rotation candidate down the road, this could be Stults' best chance to impress the Dodgers brass.
Oddsmakers opened the Dodgers short –115 home favorites in tonight’s baseball betting affair, with the ‘total’ set at 8.5 over 115. BoDog.com offers all MLB betting odds be it side, total, or run-line, so be sure to login to your account and get your wagers down before tonight’s first pitch.
We have no choice but to continue to look at the under that’s cashed 15 of the 19 times Chicago has been installed an underdog in the +100 to +125 range, and it’s cashed in 13 of the L/16 times the Dodgers were installed a favorite.