A's silence Rangers, take rubber match

Baseball Betting Lines

05/05/2010 - Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Daric Barton finished 2-for-3 with an RBI as Oakland topped Texas, 4-1, in the rubber match of a three-game set.

Eric Patterson homered while Ryan Sweeney and Kevin Kouzmanoff also drove in runs for the Athletics, who took the series but won for just the fourth time in their last 11 games.

Trevor Cahill (1-1) earned his first win of the season by scattering five hits and one unearned run over five-plus innings. Andrew Bailey picked up his fifth save with a scoreless final frame.

Vladimir Guerrero drove in the lone run and Elvis Andrus collected a pair of hits for the Rangers, who dropped the final two games in the set after winning four in a row.

Colby Lewis (3-1) suffered his first setback of the season after being charged with five hits and three runs over six innings.

Already ahead by two, the A's picked up an insurance run off Darren Oliver in the seventh. Rajai Davis singled and advanced on a sacrifice bunt from Cliff Pennington, then stole third before Barton's single up the middle plated him.

Brad Ziegler sent down the side in order in the eighth, then Bailey did the same in the ninth to lock up the victory.

Oakland got on the board in the second, thanks to a pair of RBI groundouts from Sweeney and Kouzmanoff. Pennington got the frame started with a single then Barton stroked a ground-rule double to put two men in scoring position.

Patterson then led off the fifth with a blast to right-center for a 3-0 game.

Texas picked up a run in the sixth. Michael Young reached on Kouzmanoff's throwing error and Josh Hamilton singled, which put runners on the corners and brought the end to Cahill's outing for Tyson Ross.

Guerrero followed with a base hit to plate Young, but Ian Kinsler's double- play ball and a grounder from David Murphy kept it a 3-1 game.

Game Notes

Oakland had won 11 of the 19 meetings with Texas a year ago, and has taken four of the last six against the Rangers on the East Bay...Bailey has yet to allow a run this season and has worked 20 2/3 scoreless frames since last September 6...The A's improved to 8-3 in day games this season...Texas was held to two runs or fewer for just the second time in its last 15 contests.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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