Rangers seeking to extend lead on second-place A's

Baseball Betting Lines

07/28/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cliff Lee sure is one tough act to follow.

Colby Lewis will have to do just that tonight as he aims to pitch the Texas Rangers to a fourth straight victory over the Oakland Athletics in the middle contest of a three-game series at Rangers Ballpark.

In his fourth start with the Rangers since being acquired from Seattle by way of a trade, Lee hurled nine innings and gave up just one unearned run while striking out a career-high 13 batters last night, but did not get a decision in a 3-1 extra-inning victory over the Athletics.

It marked the third time with Texas that Lee has gone at least nine innings and seventh time in his last 10 starts overall.

"I don't go into a game trying to strike out a bunch of hitters, but when I am locating my fastball well and mixing in some off-speed pitches, I'm going to get a bunch of strikeouts," said Lee.

Lee's outstanding outing was nearly wasted, but Nelson Cruz belted a walk-off two-run homer in the 10th inning to give Texas a 4-1 mark so far on a seven- game homestand and its seventh win in its last nine games overall.

"I hit it pretty well," said Cruz. "It was one of those hits when you make good contact -- I was just looking for a pitch to drive and I got one."

The American League West-leading Rangers own an 8 1/2-game lead over the Athletics and Angels in the division and have won three straight and four of seven versus Oakland this season.

Lewis will try to extend that series win streak this evening, though the right-hander had a two-start winning run end Wednesday versus Detroit. Lewis allowed four runs on nine hits over seven innings, falling to 9-6 with a 3.52 earned run average on the season and 2-2 with a 4.97 ERA over his last five starts.

The 30-year-old is 5-1 with a 3.40 ERA in eight home starts in 2010 and 2-1 with a 3.65 ERA in eight games, six of those starts, lifetime versus the A's. He has faced them twice this year, going 0-1 with a 4.15 ERA.

Trevor Cahill counters for Oakland and is 9-4 with a 3.15 ERA on the season. The 22-year-old was drilled for five runs over 6 2/3 innings of a no-decision versus Kansas City on July 17 and is coming off Friday's loss to the Chicago White Sox. Cahill was better in that game, yielding three runs -- two earned -- on four hits and two walks in seven innings of work.

The righty is 4-1 with a 2.23 ERA in six lifetime starts against Texas, including 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA in two this season.

Cahill will hope for better support tonight after Kurt Suzuki drove in Oakland's lone run on Tuesday. The Athletics came into the game having won nine of their last 11 and scored 28 runs in their previous five contests.

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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.

As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.

Bet 2010 Super Bowl Odds

The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.

Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).

But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.

Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.

Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:

Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1

Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2

New York Giants - 9 - 2

Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).

Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.

So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.

And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.

They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.

Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.

But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.

Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.

Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.

Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.

Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?

Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.

In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.

Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.

Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.

The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.

The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.

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