Astros go for series win over Mets

Baseball Betting Lines

05/15/2011 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Astros will try to win the season series from the New York Mets this afternoon when the two teams play the rubber match of a three-game set at Minute Maid Park.

Houston took two of three from the Mets in April, but New York answered with a stunning come-from-behind win in Friday's opener of this series. The Astros responded on Saturday, though, as Carlos Lee recorded the 2,000th hit of his career in the first inning and added a solo home run later in the game to help Houston take a 7-3 win.

"Anytime you accomplish something, it's always better when you win. You can celebrate and you can have fun. It's a lot easier," said Lee about his milestone.

Bill Hall added a solo home run and two RBI while Matt Downs also hit a solo home run for the Astros, who won for only the second time in their last seven games. J.A. Happ (3-4) went six innings and gave up two runs on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts to get the win.

Jose Reyes had an RBI and a run scored, Daniel Murphy hit a solo home run and Justin Turner drove in the other run for the Mets, who had a three-game winning streak stopped. R.A. Dickey (1-5) was tagged for six runs on 11 hits in just 5 1/3 innings for the loss.

Houston will pin its hopes today on 23-year-old righty Aneury Rodriguez, who will be making his third big league start. After getting a no-decision despite five scoreless innings of one-hit ball against Cincinnati in his first start, Rodriguez was shelled by the Reds on Monday for five runs in five innings and got the loss.

"They weren't letting him get ahead," Houston manager Brad Mills said. "That was one of the biggest things last week was that he was getting ahead. They made a comment that he was [effectively wild in his last start] there and he was able to get himself back in the count with some pretty good pitches. That was probably the biggest thing. There were some pitches that kind of leaked back over the plate on him tonight that they were able to get the barrel of the bat on."

Rodriguez gave up three unearned runs in a two-inning relief stint against the Mets earlier in the year.

Getting the call for the Mets this afternoon will be lefty Chris Capuano, who has lost his last three starts. Capuano, though, has been the victim of poor run support his last two outings, as the Mets have produced just one run for him.

Capuano's latest setback came on Monday in Colorado, as he allowed two runs and five hits in 6 2/3 innings, dropping him to 2-4 on the year to go along with a 4.93 ERA. Capuano didn't help his cause any at the plate, striking out three times, including once with the bases loaded.

"We work on that stuff," Capuano said. "As a pitching staff, we don't want to be an automatic out up there. When we've got runners on base with a chance to help ourselves, we should at least be able to put the ball in play."

Capuano's last win came against the Astros back on April 21 and he is 5-4 lifetime against them with a 3.32 ERA in 13 games (10 starts).

Houston took two of three when these teams met at Citi Field in late April.

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FOOTBALL BETTING LINES

NFL Football Sports Betting

Two playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count.

New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend.

His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates.

HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game.

The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup.

RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day.

First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08.

The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition.

These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years.

New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5.

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