Braves aim for 10th straight win in clash with Dodgers

Baseball Betting Lines

06/04/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Atlanta Braves winless starter Kenshin Kawakami will try to get in on the action when he takes the mound for Friday's second portion of a four-game set against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chavez Ravine.

Kawakami hasn't won since August 31 of last season and is 0-7 with a 4.66 earned run average in 10 starts this year. The National League East-leading Braves are 3-7 when Kawakami takes the hill this season, but won his last outing with a 5-2 verdict over Pittsburgh on Sunday. Kawakami limited the Pirates to two runs in 6 2/3 frames, marking the third straight time he has lasted at least six innings.

The Japanese right-hander, who is 0-6 with a 5.29 ERA in six road starts, faced the Dodgers for the first time in a 2-1 win at Chavez Ravine back on August 8, 2009. Kawakami did not record a decision despite hurling seven shutout innings and allowing four hits with four strikeouts.

Another performance like that tonight would most likely send the Braves to their 10th straight win. They made it nine in a row with last night's 4-3 victory over Los Angeles in the opener of this series, as Troy Glaus hit his 10th home run of the season and Yunel Escobar finished 2-for-4 with a run scored.

The Braves are riding their longest winning streak since a team-best 15-game run from April 16-May 2, 2000 and sit three games ahead of Philadelphia in the division.

Glaus, the NL's Player of the Month for May, is riding a nine-game hitting streak in which he's clubbed four homers and driven in 15 runs.

Braves starter Kris Medlen earned the win, his third of the season, by holding the Dodgers to three runs -- two earned -- and six hits in 7 1/3 innings. Peter Moylan, Eric O'Flaherty, Takashi Saito and Jonny Venters went the rest of the way to preserve the win, with Venters getting the last out of the game to post his first save of the season.

"I started jumping ahead with my fastball because you can't throw a changeup the entire time," Medlen said. "I located real well, went in and out. It worked for me. It's a tough lineup, but I seemed to get through it."

Atlanta has won 24 of its last 32 contests and is a season-best 10 games over the .500 mark. It will also visit Arizona and Minnesota on the season-long 11- game road trip.

Los Angeles had its four-game winning streak come to an end on Thursday and fell 1 1/2 games behind San Diego for the top spot in the NL West. Hiroki Kuroda started for the Dodgers and fell to 5-4 on the season after he was reached for four runs, three of which were earned, on seven hits and four walks over six innings.

Andre Ethier and James Loney both had two hits and Ronnie Belliard knocked in a run for the Dodgers, who rallied for three runs in the eighth before suffering the loss. Los Angeles was coming off a three-game sweep of the rival Arizona Diamondbacks and is 3-1 on a 13-game homestand.

"We're not really having real good at-bats," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said on the team's site. "The opposing pitchers' pitch counts have been really low. We're not having quality at-bats we had a week or so ago. We have to fight our way out. I hope those runs in the eighth got us started. We've been trying to do too much."

The Dodgers will also host the Cardinals and Angels on their season-long homestand. They are 18-9 in Hollywood this season and will send Clayton Kershaw to the mound Friday night. He is 4-1 with a 1.08 earned run average in his last five starts and recently beat the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on Sunday. Kershaw tossed five innings of two-run ball and struck out nine batters in a 4-3 win.

Kershaw, who lost his previous start at the Cubs despite giving up one unearned run in a 3-0 setback, pushed his overall mark to 5-3 to go along with a 2.95 earned run average.

The left-hander is 3-2 in six home starts this season and will face Atlanta for the second time in his career. Kershaw squared off with Kawakami last August and delivered seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball with 10 strikeouts.

Los Angeles lost four of seven meetings with Atlanta a year ago, while the Braves have won the last four matchups between the clubs -- all at Dodger Stadium.

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL BETTING

NCAA Football Betting

Many fans thought it was the best side in the nation by the end of last season. This year, the polls have built on Georgia's momentum and granted it the No. 1 preseason ranking, followed by Ohio State and USC. (The Associated Press has the Buckeyes at No. 2; USA Today took the Trojans.)

"To have people believing we have one of the best teams in the nation going into this thing, it's exciting for us," Bulldogs coach Mark Richt told the AP. "I don't think anything is guaranteed, but we certainly have put ourselves in position where at least the college football world thinks we're pretty good."

Georgia Bulldogs - 9.5 wins

There's no question they're good, but the Bulldogs have one of the toughest 12-game schedules in the nation, mostly because they play in the powerhouse Southeastern Conference. Away games at No. 15 Arizona State, No. 7 LSU and No. 10 Auburn loom large, with contests between the hedges versus No. 24 Alabama and No. 18 Tennessee as well as the World's Largest Cocktail Party in Jacksonville versus No.5 Florida.

Ohio State Buckeyes - 10 wins

Like the Bulldogs, the Buckeyes also have a number of tough road contests in 2008. After two scrimmages dressed up as real games versus Youngstown State and Ohio, it's off to face USC. Other tough away games include No.13 Wisconsin in October and No. 20 Illinois in November. Granted, it should be pretty easy sledding at the Horseshoe. In fact, the only ranked team that travels to Columbus is No. 22 Penn State, in October.

USC Trojans - 10.5 wins

A similarly light schedule awaits the Trojans of Southern California, which is why the oddsmakers' total is one win more and the over is currently commanding -150 odds. Pete Carroll's troops only play three ranked teams in 2008, and all of those games are at home. After what should be an easy trip to Virginia to start things off on Aug. 30, the Trojans get two weeks to prepare for Ohio State in Los Angeles. Their two other ranked opponents, No. 21 Oregon and No. 15 Arizona State, visit in consecutive weeks to start the month of October. After that, the competition eases up. Of course, this is the same highly-touted school that lost to Stanford in 2007 and Oregon State in 2006. And don't discount the fact that USC plays its biggest rivals, Notre Dame and UCLA, back-to-back to close out the regular season. On paper, the Trojans are far superior, but motivation will be high for the Irish and Bruins, especially if their historic foes are in national-title contention.

Odds to Win the Heisman Trophy

Tim Tebow, Florida - 7/2
He won it last year, so it's no surprise he's the favorite to do it again, making him just the second player to go back-to-back. Ohio State's Archie Griffin turned the trick in 1974 and 1975, and Tebow's coach, Urban Meyer, is pretty sure his star quarterback can match the Buckeyes legend.

"There has never been anyone quite like him," Meyer told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I am very lucky to be his coach."

Chris Wells, Ohio State - 5/1

The man they call "Beanie" was a star recruit out of high school, so it's not like nobody knew who the star tailback was before he rushed for 576 yards as a freshman in 2006 and 1,609 as a sophomore. But perhaps his finest moment came last year versus Michigan when he rumbled for 222 yards and two touchdowns in the Buckeyes' 14-3 victory over the hated Wolverines.

Knowshon Moreno, Georgia - 8/1

If the Bulldogs are to live up to expectations, they'll need a huge effort from their sophomore running back. This might be the last year of college ball for Moreno, who rushed for 1,334 yards and for 14 touchdowns as a freshman, while adding 253 receiving yards on 20 receptions, so expect big things for the man from Belford, N.J.

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