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07/19/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After getting swept in four games at St. Louis over the weekend, the Los Angeles Dodgers are back at home and will try to regroup in tonight's opener of a three-game set versus the NL West-rival San Francisco Giants at Chavez Ravine.
Pitching and scoring runs is what usually propels teams to victory. The Dodgers did none of that against the Cardinals, but did show signs of hope in a 5-4 loss Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium. With the Dodgers clinging to a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the ninth, closer Jonathan Broxton gave up four hits and a pair of runs with two outs to absorb the loss. Allen Craig and Matt Holliday lifted the home team to victory with back-to-back RBI singles.
"I got myself in bad counts and walked guys," Broxton said.
Vicente Padilla started for LA and did his part with six shutout innings, while Travis Schlichting gave up two runs before Justin Miller permitted another in relief. Broxton then tossed the final 1 1/3 frames.
Matt Kemp, Garret Anderson and Padilla each drove in a run for the Dodgers, who are 5 1/2 games behind San Diego for bragging rights in the competitive National League West Division. Los Angeles will also host the New York Mets for four games on this residency.
The Dodgers are expected to call up right-handed pitcher James McDonald from Triple-A Albuquerque for tonight's start. McDonald is 6-1 with a 4.41 earned run average in 12 starts for the Isotopes this season and is expected to make his fifth career start tonight. In 45 games (4 starts) for LA last season, McDonald went 5-5 with a 4.00 ERA.
McDonald has faced San Francisco seven times in relief, going 0-0 with a 1.93 ERA over 9 1/3 innings of work.
Meanwhile, the Giants were aiming for their sixth straight win and a three- game sweep of the New York Mets before suffering a 4-3 setback in 10 innings on Sunday. Closer Brian Wilson gave up the go-ahead RBI double to Ike Davis in the top of the 10th and suffered the loss after the Giants failed to produce any runs in the home half.
Travis Ishikawa tied the game off Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez with a pinch-hit two-run single in the bottom of the ninth and Buster Posey knocked in the other run for the Giants, who lost for only the second time in 11 tries and fell 4 1/2 games off the lead in the NL West.
"This club's been resilient. We showed it last road trip and now we have to bounce back from this one," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said on the team's site. "This was a tough one. This is one we had and I feel for those guys because they battled hard. But we've got to be ready to go [Monday] and we know we have to play better in our division and put this behind us."
Jonathan Sanchez started for Bochy's club yesterday and did not record a decision for hurling seven innings of two-run ball. The Giants, who will host Arizona for four games by the Bay on this homestand, are expected to send young pitching prospect Madison Bumgarner to the mound Monday night.
Bumgarner is 2-2 with a 2.57 earned run average in four starts this season and has won back-to-back starts. In a 6-2 win at Washington the previous time out on July 11, he held the Nationals to one run on seven hits in six innings. The lefty faced the Dodgers once in relief during a 12-1 road loss on September 19 last season and struck out a pair of batters.
Los Angeles has won five of the first six matchups with San Francisco this season and is riding a four-game winning streak in the series. The Dodgers swept the Giants in three games by the Bay from June 28-30 and have won 11 of the past 15 meeting between the ballclubs.
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The Kentucky Derby's post-position draw happened on Wednesday. And, as is always the case, shortly afterwards, a buzz raced around Churchill Downs. It was a low rumble at first, nothing that the squares in the mint julep crowd pick up right away. But by the time the sun set over the twin spires, the chatter was impossible to ignore. Everyone -- sharps, trainers, owners -- was talking about one thing: the wise guy horse, the pre-draw long shot us mopes didn't have on our radar until it was too late.
"You think you're hearing the scoop," says handicapper Lane Gold. "Then you get to the window, the odds are short, and you missed it."
Recognizing a wise-guy horse early is as hard as picking a Derby bonnet. That's because handicappers don't like hype (see ya, I Want Revenge). They want Thoroughbreds who look good losing prep races like the Santa Anita Derby. They eye horses who ate up the field after starting wide or made an easy transition from synthetic tracks to dirt. They look for ponies who showed muscle gain race to race and those who ran hard after several weeks' rest.
"A wise guy," says John Avello, a bookmaker at Wynn Las Vegas, "looks for a horse who can improve."
When I first wrote Horse Betting for The Mag, which I turned in a three weeks before Wednesday's draw, I predicted these three horses had wise guy potential:
CHOCOLATE CANDY (15-1 in mid-April, currently 20-1 according to Avello): His second-place finish at Santa Anita, following a seven-week layoff, proved two things: He can run after resting, and -- by losing a high-profile prep race -- he wouldn't be overhyped.
DESERT PARTY (15-1; 15-1): He was upset in the UAE Derby by a horse he had beaten twice. The public remembers his loss, but the wise guys his wins.
PIONEEROF THE NILE (8-1; 4-1): The big favorite at Santa Anita struggled to win, so he initially got less hype than Quality Road and I Want Revenge.
You may have noticed that the odds on Pioneerof the Nile have been cut in half, from 8-1 to 4-1. Which means the wise guys took a shine to him long before the post-position draw. But, to be honest, this is one of those years with four elite horses getting everyone's attention, squares and sharps alike.
"You're not gonna get a lot of chatter about a horse that isn't in that group, which includes Pioneer, I Want Revenge, Dunkirk and Friesan Fire," Avello told me Wednesday. "We don't have a group of horses behind those top four who look like real legit contenders."
Come Derby week, the final two elements in picking a wise guy horse are how he's working out and what gate he's coming out of.
(By the way, picking a Preakness favorite is a whole different bale of hay, partially based on how horses finish in the Derby. You can see my analysis of who has the best shot at Pimlico on Insider Sunday morning.)
Well, early in the week I Want Revenge, Pioneerof the Nile and Friesan Fire were working out better than anyone. Some thought Friesan Fire, currently 6-1, might have run too fast, burning a five-furlong run in :57 4/5. "When you are running that fast you have the sense that it took something out of him," says Gold. "The Derby is longer than any horse has run, and if they need that extra surge you worry they won't have it because they burned it in the workout."
But, Gold points out, Friesan Fire's trainer is Larry Jones, Two years ago his horse Hard Spun did a five-eighths workout in :57 3/5 and then went on to finish second, behind Street Sense, in the Derby. "Every trainer has different methods," says Gold. "And clearly he knows what he's doing."
Now, as for starting position, Gold says to remember this: Churchill Downs traditionally has 14 starting gates. For the Derby, it brings out auxiliary gates and between the original 14th gate and the new 15th gate, there is a little more space than there is between gates 1-14. "That 15 position will give you a precious second or two to sort out what's happening to your inside," says Gold. "Sixteen is also okay because you can follow the horse in front of you."
Dunkirk, one of the race favorites, is coming out of gate 15. In 16 is Baffert's Pioneerof the Nile. I Want Revenge drew 13, where Smarty Jones won from in 2004, and Friesan Fire picked the sixth position. "He doesn't have a lot of speed to the inside of him," says Gold. "So he will get a clear shot to be near the front."
All the jibber-jabber means this: Pioneerof the Nile has leapfrogged from 8-1 to being the second favorite, along with Dunkirk, behind I Want Revenge. Meanwhile, Friesan Fire, with a good trainer, a strong week of training and a decent post position, is still at 6-1. "By Saturday, it's possible he could go from fourth to the favorite," says Gold.
In other words, meet Friesan Fire, your 2009 wise guy horse.
"Now," says Avello, "it's time for action."
To visit this horse betting site go to MySportsbook.com for all your horse racing betting needs.
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