White Sox return home to open set with Royals
Baseball Betting Lines
09/10/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After a great start to their most recent road trip, the White Sox return home licking their wounds a little bit.
After falling further behind the top spot in the American League Central, Chicago hopes to get its upcoming nine-game homestand off to a winning start this evening in the opener of a three-game set with the Kansas City Royals at U.S. Cellular Field.
The White Sox began their swing with three-game sweeps in Cleveland and Boston before taking the opener of a four-game set in Detroit on Monday. However, they were then outscored 20-5 in losing the series' final three games, including a 6-3 setback in Thursday's finale that dropped Chicago six games behind idle Minnesota for first place in the division.
After plating just a run in each of their first two losses, Alex Rios matched that total on his own with a two-run homer, but Detroit's Rick Porcello threw eight strong frames to defeat Chicago.
"He was hitting his spots," Rios said of Porcello. "He was using his slider a lot and we didn't do what we had to do."
Gavin Floyd was knocked around for 13 hits -- all singles -- in six-plus innings, while all but one of the six runs he allowed were earned.
Mark Buehrle will try to do better on the hill tonight and duplicating his last start against the Royals would accomplish that. The 31-year-old lost his first two starts this year to Kansas City before hurling seven scoreless innings of six-hit ball at home on July 9 in a victory, the 21st of his career versus the Royals.
Buehrle hasn't factored into the decision of his last two starts and his last outing came on Sunday versus Boston. The lefty was tagged for four runs on 10 hits over seven innings and is 12-10 with a 3.99 earned run average this year.
Kansas City's Bruce Chen took the loss opposite Buehrle back in July and seeks redemption tonight. The fellow southpaw lasted just 3 1/3 innings on that day, yielding three runs and six hits to remain winless in his career (0-3) against the White Sox with a 5.28 ERA against them.
Chen had alternated wins and losses over his previous five starts before not factoring into the decision of his club's 6-4 setback to the Tigers on Saturday. The 33-year-old gave up four runs over just 4 2/3 innings, marking the second time in his last three starts that he failed to get out of the fifth inning.
In 28 games (18 starts) this year Chen is 9-7 with a save and 4.89 ERA.
The Royals aided to the White Sox current division deficit as they were swept in three games by the Twins, culminating with Wednesday's 4-3 loss.
Zack Greinke threw no-hit ball over the first 4 2/3 innings, but ended up allowing four runs and five hits over an eight-inning complete-game effort.
"Overall, I pitched all right," Greinke told the Royals' website. "I definitely wasn't pitching good enough to do a no-hitter. That'd had to been pretty much all them messing up, not really me doing it."
Brayan Pena drove in two runs, including one in the ninth, while Alex Gordon also had an RBI in that final frame to account for the one-run loss, Kansas City's sixth setback in its last seven games.
The White Sox have taken five of six at home this year over the Royals, giving them a slight 8-7 edge in the overall season series.
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Mayweather picked to beat De La Hoya
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and his rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. arrived at the MGM Grand here Wednesday amid the pomp and pandemonium befitting two of the biggest stars in the sport who are about to duke it out for the WBC super welterweight crown this Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
As of Wednesday, MySportsbook.com closed its book with Mayweather a favorite to defeat De La Hoya at -170 (a $100 bet wins $70), while De La Hoya is a +140 underdog (a $100 bet wins $140).
Mayweather arrived at about 11:30 a.m. on a big truck with his face and a big "World's Best Pound-for-Pound" sign scribbled across the vehicle. He was accompanied by his entourage made up of rappers and his training team.
A crowd of close to 3,000 eager fans packed the MGM Grand lobby, with their cameras in tow, all trying to vie for position to get a good angle at Mayweather, who is acknowledged as the world's best fighter pound-for-pound.
Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions vice-president, described the fan turnout as "amazing" and swore he had never seen anything quite like this event.
"The crowd was fantastic. Everybody was just too eager to see the two fighters," said ALA manager Michael Aldeguer, who was among those who waited at the lobby together with his ward Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and AJ Banal.
De La Hoya made his own grand entrance at the hotel lobby at around 12:30 p.m. accompanied by GBP chief executive officer Richard Schaefer and trainer Freddie Roach.
The same group of fans who trooped to see Mayweather also lingered around to get a close look at De La Hoya, who has been secretly working out at a Las Vegas gym for days after arriving from his main training camp in Puerto Rico.
The golden boy then took part in a closed-door afternoon workout with Bautista and Banal. The two, along with Aldeguer and wife Christine, as well as an HBO crew were the only ones allowed inside the gym.
De La Hoya and Mayweather take part in today's final press conference before the official weigh-in this Friday.
Ring Magazine, the acknowledged bible of boxing, reported in its June 2007 issue that 12 out of 20 boxing experts it interviewed have favored Mayweather to defeat De la Hoya, with only 8 favoring the latter.
But Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao said in a recent interview with The Freeman's Emmanuel Villaruel that De La Hoya will win by unanimous decision over Mayweather.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on boxing needs.