Pujols, Cards resume set with Braves

Baseball Betting Lines

07/21/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Albert Pujols is getting hot and will try to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a victory tonight when the club plays the third game of its four-game set with the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field.

Pujols homered for the fifth time in eight games following the All-Star break with a solo shot in Friday's 4-2 win over the Braves, giving him 21 on the season. He has driven in seven runs during the stretch and lifted his batting average to .319 on the season.

Juan Encarnacion drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of yesterday's victory, plating Pujols with a single, as the Cardinals won for the fourth time in six games and improved to 4-4 on their current 10-game road trip.

Adam Wainwright (9-7) allowed one run on six hits with two walks and seven strikeouts, while Jason Isringhausen worked out of a ninth-inning jam to earn his 19th save in 21 chances.

Scott Rolen, though, missed his third straight game due to a left shoulder injury and is listed as day-to-day.

The Cardinals will send Braden Looper to the hill tonight, and the right- hander is coming off a win at Florida on Monday. Looper limited the Marlins to two runs on five hits over 6 1/3 innings to move his mark to 7-7 on the year with a 4.60 earned run average.

The victory halted a six-start losing streak (0-4) for Looper.

A former closer, Looper has never started against the Braves but has faced them 53 times out of the bullpen. In that span, he is 4-2 with eight saves and a 4.07 ERA.

Buddy Carlyle aims for his third straight winning decision when he toes the rubber for Atlanta. The 29-year-old twirled eight solid innings in a victory over San Diego on July 6 before besting Pittsburgh on Sunday behind eight innings of one-run, four-hit ball. Carlyle is 4-2 with a 4.00 ERA, and is undefeated over his last four outings (3-0).

The right-hander has made just one career appearance against the Cardinals, facing them in relief back on September 26, 2000. He threw a shutout inning, walking one and striking out a batter.

Carlyle will hope to get the Braves of their current skid, as the club has dropped four of its last five games. Chipper Jones went 2-for-3 with an RBI, and Edgar Renteria also had a pair of hits in Atlanta's setback on Friday.

Rafael Soriano (2-2) absorbed the loss, allowing a pair of runs on four hits in the eighth. Starter Chuck James tossed seven frames, allowing one run on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts.

The defeat moved the Braves to 4-4 on their current 10-game homestand and has the second-place squad 3 1/2 games behind the Mets for the top spot in the National League East.

This series marks the first 2007 meeting between these teams. Atlanta won four of six matchups with St. Louis last season and is 5-2 in its last seven games against the Cardinals at Turner Field.

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Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.