Choo and Tribe pound A's

Baseball Betting Lines

07/03/2009 - Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shin-Soo Choo went 4-for-5 with two homers, a career-high seven runs batted in and scored four times, as the Cleveland Indians crushed the Oakland Athletics, 15-3, in the opener of a three-game series at Progressive Field.

Travis Hafner belted a solo shot and walked twice, while Asdrubal Cabrera had a pair of doubles and three RBI for Cleveland, which snapped a five-game slide, but have only three wins in its last 16 games.

David Huff (4-3) picked up the win after working six innings. The rookie left- hander allowed eight hits and three runs, struck out four and walked one, and has won four of his last five starts.

Nomar Garciaparra had two hits, including a double and an RBI for the Athletics, who have dropped seven of nine.

Trevor Cahill (5-7) was pinned with the loss after getting raked for eight runs -- five earned -- on six hits in 3 2/3 innings. The right-hander walked four and struck out two.

Holliday's ground out to shortstop in the first chased home Adam Kennedy, who led off the ball game with a ground-rule double and took third on a grounder to second to give the Athletics the early edge. Garciaparra's RBI two-bagger in the top of the second made it a 2-0 game, before Hafner's solo blast got the Indians on the board in the home half.

Choo's RBI single in the third pulled the Tribe even and left runners on the corners with two outs. Hafner drew a walk to load the bases and Jhonny Peralta chopped a ground ball to third, but Bobby Crosby's throwing error allowed two more to come home to put Cleveland in front 4-2.

Jack Cust got one back for the A's with a run-scoring base hit in the top of the fourth. Then in the bottom half, an RBI double by Cabrera and a two-run double from Choo stretched the Indians lead to 7-3 and signaled the end for Cahill. Santiago Casilla took over and walked Hafner and served up an RBI single to Peralta.

Cleveland continued to pour it on in the fifth, putting five more on the board. Luis Valbuena and Ben Francisco each singled to get the inning started and both scored when Cabrera lined a two base hit to center. Later in the inning, Choo's three-run homer upped the hosts lead to 13-3.

Grady Sizemore's run-scoring double in the sixth and solo homer by Choo in the seventh put the Tribe ahead by 12.

Mike Gosling came on for mop up duty in the top of the ninth and got the final three outs despite giving up a pair of hits.

Game Notes

The Tribe took five of nine meetings with Oakland last season, including a 4-2 mark as the host. Cleveland has won 10 of the last 14 matchups versus the Athletics at home...The Indians improved to 2-5 on their nine-game homestand...Choo also stole a base and is now 13-for-13 in steal attempts...Oakland's Orlando Cabrera had his 14-game hitting streak snapped due to an 0-for-5 performance.

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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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