D'Backs go for first-ever sweep in Brew City

Baseball Betting Lines

08/12/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arizona's four-game series with Milwaukee has certainly featured some exciting moments for the club, but there is one more thing left to do.

The Diamondbacks, who have already secured their first series win at Miller Park since September of 2003, will try for their first-ever sweep of the Brewers in this afternoon's finale.

Arizona kicked off this series with an extra-inning victory on Monday to snap a seven-game slide to Milwaukee, then won on Tuesday to record back-to-back wins over the club for the first time in over a year. Wednesday's meeting featured the biggest highlight of the series as four Diamondback batters hit consecutive homers off Brewers starter Dave Bush in the fourth inning to spark an 8-2 victory and tie a major league record.

The homer run on Bush came over a span of 10 pitches and was started by Adam LaRoche. Miguel Montero, Mark Reynolds and Stephen Drew all went deep in succession as Arizona became the first team to hit four consecutive homers since the White Sox on Aug. 14, 2008 and Bush the first pitcher since the Yankees' Chase Wright on April 22, 2007.

"It was pretty wild. I was like, 'what am I supposed to do now?' It was pretty special," Drew said. "It was one of those things you don't see too often. It was fun. My brother [Boston's J.D. Drew] was a part of two of them, so now he's only one-up on me."

Lost in the power display was the outing by Daniel Hudson, who struck out a career-high nine batters over seven innings to win his third start in as many games since being acquired from the White Sox. Hudson retired 16 of the final 20 batters faced and also hit a three-run double in the sixth.

Arizona has won six of its last seven, while Milwaukee's three-game slide comes after it won three straight and five of six.

Prince Fielder, in his 300th straight start, and Casey McGehee hit back-to- back homers to start the bottom of the second inning, but Bush allowed seven runs over 5 1/3 frames in the loss.

"In the fourth inning with four home runs in a row, Bush was dislocating his pitches," Brewers manager Ken Macha said. "He went right down the middle with them. The sixth inning kind of opened the game up."

All-Star Ryan Braun did not start for a third straight game, but did pinch- hit. However, he is expected to be in the lineup at the start of the game today.

Arizona goes for its sweep behind Rodrigo Lopez, who hasn't won since July 8 and is 0-3 with a 5.70 earned run average in five starts since. He faced the Padres on Saturday and did not factor into the decision of a 6-5 win after allowing three runs on eight hits over five innings.

The 34-year-old right-hander is 5-10 with a 4.66 ERA on the season and 1-0 with a 2.84 ERA in three career starts versus the Brewers, who he hasn't faced since July 14, 2007 while with the Rockies.

Randy Wolf draws the starting assignment for the Brewers and he has settled down nicely since allowing 12 runs in a loss to the Pirates on July 21. The lefty is 1-0 with a 2.29 ERA in three subsequent starts and he picked up his first win since July 21 on Saturday versus Houston after yielding a pair of runs over 6 2/3 innings.

"Wolf had a lot of baserunners the first five innings. He had eight baserunners but he did a good job getting out of jams," said Macha.

The 33-year-old Wolf is 8-9 with a 4.81 ERA this year and 9-3 with a 4.39 ERA in his career versus the Diamondbacks, who he beat on May 8 after giving up three runs over six innings of a 17-3 victory.

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Elite 8 NCAA Tournament Betting at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com

In what should be an outstanding Saturday of March Madness betting action, the top four teams in the South and West Regions square off in what should be extremely close match-ups. Three of the four teams are coming off extremely close games on Thursday evening, only UCLA won semi comfortably over Pitt 64-55.

Ohio State is coming off their second game in a row where in all reality they should have lost. Of course that doesn’t matter now since the name of the game is “survive and advance” but as the tournament continues, they can’t afford to keep getting down to their opponents early. Kansas also avoided a scare by holding off a scrappy Southern Illinois squad. In the third thrilling game of the evening Memphis pulled off the minor upset (+3.5) despite being the higher seed to Texas A&M.

Although the spreads are fairly small for Saturday’s games, MySportsbook.com continue to bet against the underdogs. Despite OSU’s two scares, 86% of the “betting public” feels the Buckeyes (-1.5) have what it takes to make the Final Four. In fact, so much of the early money is on OSU that the line has already moved from -1 to -1.5. In the second game of the doubleheader, Kansas and their high-powered offense are 2 point favorites as they take on UCLA and their effective defense. About 63% of the early money thus far is once again backing the favorites. If those percentages stay that high, don’t be surprised if this line moves as well. If you like Kansas (-2) you might want to jump on it early.

Memphis vs. Ohio State

Both squads were involved in thrillers on Thursday evening and should come out fired up. OSU can ill afford to get behind early like they did versus their previous two opponents (Xavier, Tennessee). Greg Oden needs to stay out of foul trouble; the Buckeyes are a completely different team when he is on the court. Memphis definitely has the athleticism and length to match-up with OSU. Of Memphis’ five leading minute earners, the shortest of the bunch is 6’5”. Each team has a very effective defense; Memphis surrenders 62.3 PPG whereas the Buckeyes give up only 61 PPG. With those type of numbers, it isn’t surprising that Memphis covered the UNDER almost 69% of the time this season. As a favorite, OSU has covered the UNDER almost 66% of the time over the last three seasons. The major concern for Memphis which is magnifies this time of the year is their brutal foul shooting (62%). This season, OSU is 17-11 ATS versus teams with a winning record and 7-2 ATS in all tournament games. Memphis has been an extremely reliable cover in tournament play in recent years with a 23-8 ATS record over the last three seasons.

UCLA vs. Kansas

In the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, UCLA will play in a role which they are very unfamiliar with that of the underdog. Only twice this season have they been getting points from the handicappers and both times they covered. Over the last three seasons UCLA is a reliable 23-7 ATS in this unfamiliar role. UCLA has not fared well against Big 12 opponents recently going 1-7 ATS since 1997. Giving up only 59.6 PPG, UCLA will definitely look to do what they do best: keep this game as low scoring as possible. Their defense has been especially tough during the tournament. UCLA opponents have been able to muster up only 48.7 PPG while shooting a combined 34.5% from the field. UCLA definitely has a challenge at hand with a Kansas team that is capable of putting points on the board in bunches. As a team, they average 79 PPG and shoot an impressive 49.6% from the field and 39.4% from beyond the arc. During the tournament Kansas has been “lights out” from the field having shot 56.2%.

With Friday -105 juice on Basketball betting, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on all of the “March Madness” action.  Don’t forget to monitor who the public is backing at MySportsbook.com’s “Betting Trends”.  By doing so, you have the best chance of predicting a possible line change, thus getting the best value for your wager.

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