Twins try to gain ground in Central in opener with Tigers

Baseball Betting Lines

07/03/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Twins have an opportunity to gain some ground on the division-leading Detroit Tigers when the American League Central rivals begin a key three-game series tonight at the Metrodome.

The Twins presently trail the first-place Tigers by three games in the standings, with the hard-charging Chicago White Sox a half-game in front of Minnesota for second.

Minnesota will be entering this evening's clash with some momentum after taking the final two tests of a three-game series at Kansas City earlier this week. In Wednesday's rubber match, Glen Perkins threw seven effective innings and Michael Cuddyer homered and knocked in two runs to lead the way in a 5-1 triumph over the Royals.

Perkins (4-4) scattered 10 hits and allowed just one run to help the Twins to their fifth victory in their past seven games. The club completed a nine-game road trip with a 6-3 record.

"We're starting to play a little better," first baseman Justin Morneau told the team's official site afterward. "We could still hit better with runners in scoring position, but we're winning ballgames. We're finding a way to get it done, and a lot of that has to do with the pitching, which has been great on this road trip."

Morneau left Wednesday's contest in the seventh inning with a sore left groin but is expected to be in the lineup tonight. Shortstop Nick Punto, who was also removed in the seventh due to tightness in his lower back, is likely to be available as well.

Joe Mauer went 3-for-3 with an RBI single in Wednesday's win to raise his major league-leading average to .392. The All-Star catcher is batting a scorching .458 with nine home runs and 26 RBI in just 24 games at the Metrodome this season.

Tonight's matchup begins a nine-game homestand for Minnesota, whose 24-15 record at the Metrodome ranks among the best home marks in baseball. The team also gets to send out one of baseball's top winners in 2009 to the mound for this series opener, with Kevin Slowey ready to take aim at his 11th victory of the season.

Slowey carries an impressive 10-3 record into this evening's game, but two of those losses have come in his last four starts. The right-hander matched his shortest outing of the year in Sunday's 5-3 loss at St. Louis, where he was tagged for five runs and served up a pair of homers before being yanked after three innings.

A return home should benefit the 25-year-old, since he's 8-0 in nine Metrodome starts this season and allowed two runs or fewer in each of his last five appearances at his home park. One of those starts came against the Tigers on May 12, with Slowey firing six innings of one-run ball in a 6-2 win.

In four career encounters with Detroit, Slowey is 3-0 with a 4.57 earned run average.

The Tigers resume a nine-game road trip tonight and haven't fared too well thus far on the trek. After dropping two of three to the Houston Astros last weekend, Detroit only managed one win in its recent three-game set with the AL West cellar-dwelling Oakland Athletics.

Detroit's bats were stymied by the A's Dallas Braden in Wednesday's 5-1 defeat, with the left-hander limiting the Tigers to a run and five hits over the first seven innings.

"He went in and out, changed speeds," said Detroit manager Jim Leyland of Braden. "He pitched very well."

The Tigers were without third baseman Brandon Inge, the team's leader in RBI (52) and co-leader in home runs (18). The converted catcher sat out because of a sore left knee, but is expected to play tonight.

Detroit starter Justin Verlander (8-4) permitted four runs on a pair of homers in his six-inning stint to suffer the loss.

Rookie Luke French gets an audition for the fifth spot in the Tigers rotation in tonight's test. The young left-hander, an eighth-round selection by Detroit in the 2004 draft, earned a shot by going 4-4 with a 2.98 ERA in 13 starts for Triple-A Toledo.

French did appear in two games as a reliever for Detroit in mid-May and tossed three scoreless innings. The 23-year-old has been sharp lately for the Mud Hens, having surrendered just four runs and racking up 26 strikeouts in 23 innings over his past three starts.

Dontrelle Willis had been serving as the Tigers' fifth starter before being placed on the disabled list last month to work out a lingering anxiety disorder. He was then replaced by Alfredo Figaro, who was bombed for eight runs (7 earned) in six innings of a loss at Houston on Sunday.

The Twins swept a three-game series from Detroit at the Metrodome between May 12-14 and is 4-1 against the Tigers this season. Minnesota has also taken 10 of the past 14 overall meetings between the divisional foes.

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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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