Sabathia on mound as Yankees finish first homestand at new stadium

Baseball Betting Lines

04/22/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The first-ever homestand at the new Yankee Stadium comes to a close with this afternoon's finale of an abbreviated two-game series between the Bronx Bombers and the Oakland Athletics.

After splitting a four-game set with Cleveland to christen their extravagant new ballpark, the Yankees moved over .500 on the residency by coming through with a 5-3 victory over Oakland last night. The win was the eighth in 12 games for New York since starting the season with a pair of losses in Baltimore.

Andy Pettitte (2-0) shined in his regular-season debut at this version of Yankee Stadium, with the veteran lefty holding the Athletics to two runs and scattering nine hits over the first seven innings. Another longtime Yankee, Mariano Rivera, tossed a scoreless ninth to record his fourth save of the young season.

Johnny Damon finished 2-for-5 with a homer and two runs batted in to pace New York offensively, while Brett Gardner delivered a two-RBI single during a four-run second inning that propelled the Yankees to their latest win.

Oakland starter Dana Eveland (0-1) was dealt the loss after allowing four runs on nine hits and walking four batters in just four innings of work.

Kurt Suzuki went 4-for-4 with an RBI single for Oakland, which lost for the third straight time, while Mark Ellis knocked home a pair of runs on the evening.

Ex-Yankee Jason Giambi ended 1-for-4 with a run scored in his first game in the Bronx since returning to Oakland as a free agent this offseason. The former American League MVP spent the past seven seasons in pinstripes after bolting the A's via free agency following the 2001 campaign.

The power-hitting first baseman and his Oakland teammates will be taking their swings this afternoon off one of the Yankees' marquee offseason additions, as CC Sabathia makes his fourth start with his new club in today's finale.

Sabathia, lured to New York with a seven-year, $161 million deal in December, struggled badly in an Opening Day loss at Baltimore but has pitched considerably better over his last two outings. The high-priced left-hander earned his first win as a Yankee by tossing 7 2/3 shutout innings against Kansas City on April 11, then routinely worked out of trouble in a no-decision against one of his former teams, the Cleveland Indians, last Thursday.

The 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner walked five Indians and lasted just 5 2/3 innings in Thursday's start, but limited his ex-mates to just one run before exiting.

Sabathia, a native of the Bay Area, has not had much success when facing his hometown Athletics over the course of his nine-year career. The 28-year-old is just 3-7 in 15 lifetime starts against Oakland and has compiled a subpar 6.12 earned run average in those games.

The Athletics will send out highly-regarded rookie Brett Anderson, who takes another stab at attempting to record his first major-league win. The 21-year- old pitched well enough to accomplish the feat a week ago, when he held Boston to two runs and five hits over seven strong innings, but received no offensive support in an eventual 8-2 Oakland loss.

Anderson, tabbed as the No. 7 overall prospect by Baseball America heading into this season, made his big-league debut on April 10 and was dealt a loss by Seattle after giving up five runs through six frames. This will be the young lefty's first-ever road start.

The Yankees have won five straight meetings with the A's and swept a three- game set in Oakland's final trip to the old Yankee Stadium last July.

Following today's contest, New York will visit Boston on Friday for three consecutive clashes with the rival Red Sox.

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College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.