Red Sox, Rangers to hold rubber match of exciting set

Baseball Betting Lines

08/15/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In what has turned out to be an exciting battle, the Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox will take the field this afternoon for the finale of a three-game series at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

After falling to the Rangers in extra innings on Friday, the Red Sox rebounded last night when Jon Lester turned in eight scoreless innings and Bill Hall finished 2-for-4 with an RBI in a 3-1 victory.

J.D. Drew and Marco Scutaro also drove in runs for the Red Sox, who had dropped two in a row, including a 10-9, 11-inning setback in Friday's series opener.

Lester (13-7) allowed just five hits and fanned five without walking a batter to win his second straight start after losing four in a row.

Josh Hamilton smacked a solo homer for the Rangers, who have lost four of six. Colby Lewis (9-9) was the hard-luck loser despite limiting Boston to six hits and one run with nine strikeouts over 6 2/3 frames.

This afternoon the Red Sox will give the ball to Daisuke Matsuzaka, who will be making his fifth career start against Texas. The right-hander is 3-1 in his previous four meetings with the Rangers, but has an unimpressive 5.09 earned run average.

The last time Matsuzaka was on the bump, he surrendered four runs on six hits in 5 2/3 innings Tuesday against Toronto. The Japanese hurler did not factor in the decision that night, but finished with seven strikeouts.

Matsuzaka is 4-1 in 10 road starts this season, but comes into this game with a less-than-attractive 4.09 earned run average as well.

As for the Rangers, they will turn to C.J. Wilson, who is winless in his last two starts. The last time the southpaw was on the mound he allowed just two runs in 5 1/3 innings of work against the New York Yankees on Tuesday. Wilson, who did not figure in the 4-3 victory, finished with three walks and five strikeouts.

Wilson has made 14 career appearances against Boston, but only two have been starts and one of them came earlier this season. In that contest, the savvy lefty held the Red Sox to just one run in 6 2/3 innings to pick up the victory. Wilson walked five batters in that game, but struck out 10.

The Rangers have won five of nine over the Red Sox this year and were victorious in five of six meetings at home against Boston last season.

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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.

As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.

Bet 2010 Super Bowl Odds

The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.

Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).

But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.

Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.

Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:

Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1

Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2

New York Giants - 9 - 2

Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).

Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.

So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.

And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.

They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.

Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.

But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.

Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.

Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.

Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.

Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?

Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.

In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.

Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.

Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.

The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.

The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.

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