Latos tries to end Padres 10-game slide in meeting with Dodgers

Baseball Betting Lines

09/06/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) -- Mat Latos' quick emergence into a frontline pitcher is a big reason why the San Diego Padres have stood atop the National League West for the majority of the 2010 campaign. With his team mired in by far their worst stretch of the season, the talented youngster will try to play the role of stopper when the slumping Padres begin an important three-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight at Petco Park.

San Diego had owned a seemingly-comfortable 6 1/2-game lead on second-place San Francisco in the division standings as of August 25, but the margin has dwindled down to a single game due to an untimely 10-game losing streak that was extended with Sunday's 4-2 setback to Colorado. It's the club's longest skid since it dropped a franchise-worst 13 in a row from May 8-21, 1994.

"We've got to turn this around cause there is a lot of baseball yet to be played," said San Diego manager Bud Black after yesterday's game. "I've said it before, it's in us cause I've seen it, but we haven't done it the last 10 games."

While the Padres are still in good position for making the playoffs, history isn't on their side. Only two teams -- the 1951 New York Giants and 1982 Atlanta Braves -- have advanced to the postseason after losing 10 straight contests or more that year.

San Diego had tied Sunday's tilt at 2-2 on Miguel Tejada's two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning, but the Rockies went back in front on Melvin Mora's two-RBI single off reliever Tim Stauffer (3-3) in the top of the seventh.

Stauffer recorded just one out after taking over for starter Clayton Richard, who limited Colorado to two runs -- one earned -- while throwing 100 pitches over the first six innings.

Tejada finished 3-for-4 for San Diego, which mustered only seven hits as a team and has totaled a mere 23 runs over the course of its losing streak. The Padres have scored two times or less in seven of those defeats.

Latos hasn't needed a whole lot of support as of late, however, as the right- hander has yielded two runs or fewer in each of his 14 starts and has amassed an 8-1 record with a stellar 1.51 earned run average over that span. He's struck out an impressive 104 batters in 89 1/3 innings during that time period as well.

The 22-year-old hasn't won in either of his past two starts, but was able to keep the Padres in both games before they eventually lost. He held Philadelphia to one run in a seven-inning no-decision on August 27, then permitted one run and four hits while fanning 10 Arizona hitters in just six innings against the Diamondbacks this past Wednesday.

Latos, whose 2.25 ERA for the season is tops in the NL at the moment, hasn't had much luck in past matchups with the Dodgers as well. He's 0-2 in three lifetime starts against Los Angeles despite an overall ERA of 3.21, and was handed a tough 2-1 loss at Dodger Stadium on August 3 after surrendering a pair of runs in six innings.

Los Angeles is in a bit of a rut of its own as well, having lost six of its last eight tilts to all but kill the team's postseason hopes. The Dodgers also had trouble generating offense in their last game, managing only three hits off Jonathan Sanchez and two San Francisco relievers in Sunday's 3-0 defeat to the Giants.

The Dodgers struck out a total of 13 times on the evening, with Sanchez racking out nine punchouts over the game's initial seven innings.

"Sanchez was electric and threw a lot of strikes," said Los Angeles manager Joe Torre. "We've put pressure on our starters because we've given them nothing to work with."

Hiroki Kuroda (10-12) did pitch well for the Dodgers in a losing cause, lasting eight innings and permitting three runs on six hits while registering eight strikeouts. The Japanese righty had allowed just one run over his first six frames before giving up a two-run homer to Juan Uribe in the seventh.

The Padres will have a good chance of ending their slide if Dodgers scheduled starter Vicente Padilla repeats his most recent performance. Against NL East- leading Atlanta on August 15, the veteran was tagged for eight runs and eight hits before exiting after 4 1/3 innings of his team's 13-1 loss. Padilla was placed on the 15-day disabled list the following day due to a bulging disc in his neck.

The right-hander acquitted himself awfully well in an August 4 clash against the Padres, though, with Padilla striking out nine San Diego batters while firing a two-hit shutout at Dodger Stadium that night. The effort improved him to 3-1 with a 2.88 ERA in 18 lifetime appearances against the Padres, nine of which have been starts.

Los Angeles has won seven of its 12 meetings with the Padres this season and are 4-2 in games played at Petco Park between the teams in 2010.

Las-vages Baseball Betting News

<< Giants target first place as they continue road trip in Arizona
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With first place in the National League's West Division now within their grasp, the San Francisco Giants continue a critical road trip today with the first of three straight meetings with the Arizona Diamondbacks from Chase F

<< Rockies hope to extend charge as they battle Reds
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) -- Don't look now, but the Colorado Rockies may about to be putting together one of those strong September runs that has propelled them into the postseason in years past. After climbing back into the National League West rac

<< Villanova loses starting defensive end
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending FCS national champion Villanova has lost sophomore Marlon Johnson, its only returning starter on the defensive line, to a season-ending ACL injury. Johnson, a defensive end, suffered the injury d

<< Phillies bring up Robertson, Worley to start Monday
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Phillies bolstered their bullpen Monday with two additions, bringing up lefties Nate Robertson and Mike Zagurski, and recalling Vance Worley from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to start Monday

<< Rays, Red Sox start series at Fenway
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Rays can deal the final blow to the Boston Red Sox' playoff hopes this week, as the American League East rivals open a three-game set at Fenway Park. The Rays come into tonight's opener trailing the New York

Astros try to remain hot in Chicago >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Recently red-hot lefty Wandy Rodriguez and his similarly streaking Houston teammates try to make it three straight wins when the Astros head to Wrigley Field today for the first of three consecutive games with the host Chicag

Division rivals collide as Mariners visit A's >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second-year lefty Brett Anderson can pitch the Oakland Athletics a game closer to .500 and keep them an outside contender in the American League playoff race today, when the team hosts the Seattle Mariners for the first of th

Cardinals to begin critical road trip with clash vs. Brewers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Coming off a much-needed series win, the playoff-hopeful St. Louis Cardinals know they still have a lot of work to do. St. Louis continues that uphill battle this afternoon with the opener of a three-game series at Miller

Santana scratched from Tuesday start >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York Mets ace Johan Santana will miss his next scheduled start Tuesday versus Washington with a strained pectoral muscle. Santana was forced to leave his last assignment against the Braves Thurs

Underwhelming Madrid need special touch >>
Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - When Jose Mourinho left Inter Milan this summer for the bright lights of the Bernabeu, he took a calculated risk. After all, Inter had just come off a season where they won both the domestic league and cu

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.

For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com

Additional basketball lines can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.