07/03/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Sadowski will shoot for an encore performance tonight for the NL Wild Card-leading San Francisco Giants, who will open a 10-game homestand with the first of three consecutive meetings versus the Houston Astros at AT&T Park.
Sadowski made his major league debut Sunday at Milwaukee and threw six shutout innings in a 7-0 victory, scattering four hits and striking out two batters with three walks. The right-hander was 5-2 with a 4.11 earned run average in 13 starts for Triple-A Fresno before being recalled.
The Giants hope that Sadowski can pitch them back into the win column after losing the last two tests of a four-game series in St. Louis. In Thursday's 5-2 loss at Busch Stadium, veteran starter and 2002 AL Cy Young recipient Barry Zito yielded all five runs and five hits with seven K's and three walks over 4 1/3 frames to absorb the loss.
"Everything they hit fell in, similar to the first two games for us," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. "We didn't play well defensively the last two days either. We made some mistakes we haven't been doing."
Aaron Rowand provided the offense with a two-run homer for the Giants, who went 5-5 on a 10-game trek and sit a half-game ahead of both the Brewers and Cardinals in the Wild Card standings. San Francisco will host Houston, Florida and San Diego on the residency and has won three straight as the host.
Houston recently won three of four matchups in San Diego and recorded a 7-2 victory in Thursday's series finale. Wandy Rodriguez started for the Astros and earned the win with seven innings of one-run ball, while allowing seven hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
Geoff Blum hit a three-run homer and drove in four runs for Houston, and Lance Berkman ended with two hits, three runs scored and an RBI in the win. Carlos Lee also contributed two hits and knocked in a run for the Astros, who have won six of eight games and are 3 1/2 games behind San Francisco in the Wild Card race.
"The key is to keep winning series'," said Astros manager Cecil Cooper. "That's the name of the game and we've been able to do that quite a bit lately and that's good."
Taking the ball for Cooper's club tonight will be Felipe Paulino, who is 2-4 with a 5.51 ERA in 12 games (9 starts) this season. Paulino won his most recent start Saturday versus Detroit, as he held the Tigers to a run on three hits over seven innings. He also struck out nine batters and issued no walks.
Paulino, a right-hander, recorded his first win since May 2 at Atlanta and will face San Francisco for the first time tonight. He is, however, just 1-3 in five games, three of which have been starts, on the visiting mound.
Houston and San Francisco are meeting for the first time since the Astros took seven of the eight meetings a year ago. Houston went 3-1 at AT&T Park in 2008.
<< Federer reaches record seventh straight Wimbledon final
Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Five-time champion Roger Federer
defeated Tommy Haas in Friday's men's semifinal action at Wimbledon. The
iconic Federer will now appear in a men's record seventh straight Wimbledon
final on Sunday.
<< Rockies to open homestand with last-place Diamondbacks
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rockies are back home after a lengthy road
trip and will open a three-game series tonight against the National League
West-rival Arizona Diamondbacks at Coors Field.
Colorado went 5-4 on a nine-game road swing
<< Reeling Indians try to get back on track vs. A's
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians have been playing poorly since mid-
June and will try to stop a five-game losing streak tonight in the opener of a
three-game series versus the Oakland Athletics at Progressive Field.
The Indians have
<< Twins try to gain ground in Central in opener with Tigers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Twins have an opportunity to gain some
ground on the division-leading Detroit Tigers when the American League Central
rivals begin a key three-game series tonight at the Metrodome.
The Twins presently trail
Rangers sign Arnason >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Rangers inked forward Tyler
Arnason to a two-way contract on Friday.
The 30-year-old posted five goals and 22 points in 71 games for the Avalanche
last season.
Over 487 career contests
Blue Jays bring up Dellucci, designate Adams for assignment >>
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Blue Jays purchased the contract of
outfielder David Dellucci from Triple-A Las Vegas and designated infielder
Russ Adams for assignment on Friday.
The 35-year-old Dellucci signed a minor lea
Sol's Abily claims WPS Player of Month >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Sol midfielder Camille Abily
was selected as the WPS Player of the Month for June.
The 24-year-old French international from Rennes had five goals in the month
of June, helping the Sol to
NL West: Dodgers welcome back Manny with road trip >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There's some sort of buzz going on right now in Los
Angeles. Is Eric Karros making a return to the Dodgers? Did Juan Pierre
embarrass himself by rapping in public again?
Oh wait, Manny Ramirez is returning f
NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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