Braves' Hudson aims to shut down Mets in series finale

Baseball Betting Lines

09/02/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Offense has been tough to come by for the Mets in their current series with the Braves. It should be even tougher tonight with Tim Hudson, the National League's earned run average leader, set to take the hill.

Hudson will try to win his fifth straight start over New York and pitch Atlanta to its second four-game sweep of the Mets in two seasons tonight at Turner Field.

The Mets have plated just six runs over the first three games of this set, dropping last night's contest 4-1. Luis Hernandez drove in the lone run and Mike Pelfrey yielded four runs on nine hits over five innings to take the loss, New York's sixth in eight games.

"Obviously I have to get back to executing pitches," said Pelfrey. "That is the name of the game. I didn't execute very many pitches tonight. That's a good team over there."

Atlanta, meanwhile, plated nine runs in each of the first two games before getting two RBI last night out of Martin Prado and another from Jason Heyward, who finished with four hits to lift his batting average to .536 (15-for-28) over a seven-game hitting streak with a pair of homers and eight RBI.

Tommy Hanson allowed just one hit and a walk over seven scoreless innings to pick up his first victory since July 3.

"My pitches felt really good," said Hanson. "I worked really hard in between starts trying to get my fastball command going. I felt like I did that today."

Atlanta, which maintained a three-game lead over Philadelphia for first place in the NL East, won a fifth straight game for the first time since June 16-20 and will try to post its first six-game winning streak since a season-best nine-game run from May 26-June 3.

The Braves, who swept a four-game home set over the Mets on May 20-22 in 2008, have a good chance of doing so tonight given that they have won 16 of their last 22 overall versus the Mets and 12 of the past 15 meetings at Turner Field.

Having Hudson on the mound will also help.

The 35-year-old is 6-0 over his last eight starts with a 1.43 ERA, lowering his season ERA to a league-best 2.24 to go along with a 15-5 mark. After posting consecutive no-decisions, Hudson bested the Marlins on Saturday after giving up just a run on six hits over seven innings with a career-high 13 strikeouts.

His performance caused manager Bobby Cox to throw out some high praise afterwards.

"Reminded us of old [Tom] Glavine and [Greg] Maddux and Smoltzie [John Smoltz]," Cox told Atlanta's website.

"He had such great stuff that he wasn't going to give up much no matter what the score was."

Hudson has beat the Mets both times he has faced them this year, posting a 0.69 ERA. The righty held them to a run over six innings on Aug. 2 to win his fourth straight start over the club, improving to 12-5 with a 3.43 ERA lifetime against New York.

The Mets will throw out their best in hopes of avoiding the sweep as Johan Santana takes the mound. The southpaw has lost each of his last three starts though despite a respectable 3.91 ERA as the Mets have scored just five runs in that time.

Santana did allow four runs on eight hits over seven innings of his last setback, a 4-1 loss to the Astros on Saturday. He fell to 10-9 this year with a 3.02 ERA.

The 31-year-old lost to Hudson and the Braves on Aug. 2 after allowing four runs over seven innings with nine strikeouts, falling to 2-6 in 11 career starts against Atlanta despite a 2.31 ERA.

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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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