Angels attempt to pin eighth straight loss on Mariners

Baseball Betting Lines

05/08/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The struggling Seattle Mariners will try to snap out of their rut tonight as they host the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the middle bout of a three-game set at Safeco Field.

After last night's 8-0 setback to the Angels, Seattle is now 0-7 on a current nine-game homestand. The Mariners have been outscored 40-9 over that span and are hitting just .169 during their longest slide since dropping 12 straight from September 11-22, 2008.

Felix Hernandez (2-3) had one of his worst starts as a professional last night, with the Mariners ace tying a career worst by allowing seven earned runs while lasting only 3 1/3 innings. He also matched a career worst by giving up three homers, all of which came in the fourth inning.

"You can look at his mechanics and they're a little bit out of whack, more than I've seen them in a long time," Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said of Hernandez. "Especially [allowing] four walks and giving up the home runs. It's just uncharacteristic. The ballgame was over pretty quick with the eight runs up, especially the way [Seattle's] offense has been going."

Hernandez now has a three-start losing streak for the first time since a four- start stretch of defeats from April 27-May 13, 2008. In total, he gave up eight runs, five hits and walked four on Friday.

The Angels, meanwhile, watched Jered Weaver toss 7 1/3 shutout innings of two- hit ball to snap a seven-game slide. Weaver (4-1) held a no-hitter for 6 2/3 frames and walked three batters while fanning seven in the win. The lanky righty saw his season earned run average dip to 2.66 while improving to 9-3 lifetime versus the Mariners.

"I wasn't really worried about it," said Weaver of the no-hit bid. "I was just trying to limit the baserunners and just stick to my game plan."

Juan Rivera, Howie Kendrick and Ryan Budde all homered off Hernandez in the fourth inning, helping the Angels avoid what would have been the first eight- game losing streak since manager Mike Scioscia took over the team in 2000. Kendry Morales added a three-run double in the top of the first.

Joe Saunders hopes to receive the same kind of support tonight as he toes the rubber seeking to end a personal three-game slide. The left-hander is also looking to rebound from his worst performance of the season, when he allowed seven earned runs over just four innings of a 17-8 loss at Boston on Monday.

In his career against Seattle, Saunders has had great success, posting a 7-1 ledger with a 3.19 ERA in 10 lifetime starts. He is also a perfect 5-0 with a 2.55 ERA in six starts at Safeco.

For the Mariners, they will send Doug Fister to the hill and hope he can add to his surprising start. Fister has allowed just two runs in 16 innings over his last two outings, but failed to earn a decision in either. On Sunday, the right-hander tossed eight scoreless innings and allowed only three hits. The Mariners, however, came up short in a 3-1 verdict against Texas.

Fister made his lone career start against the Angels last season, picking up the victory after allowing just one run over 7 1/3 innings of work.

Los Angeles went 10-9 against the Mariners last season and has won four straight and six of the last eight matchups between the clubs. These two teams split 10 meetings at Safeco Field a season ago.

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Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

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