Byrd is the word: Rangers try for split with Indians

Baseball Betting Lines

07/22/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Having snapped a three-game slide on Saturday, the Texas Rangers close out a four-game set against the Cleveland Indians tonight at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Marlon Byrd erupted for five RBI, matching a career-high, as the Rangers brought home an 8-5 victory against Cleveland on Saturday. Michael Young and Mark Teixeira both scored a pair of runs for the home team as well. Designated hitter Sammy Sosa was not around to see the end of the game after being hit in the helmet with a pitch in the third inning.

Rangers starter Jamey Wright made it through just 3 1/3 innings, giving up three runs -- one earned -- on one hit with six walks and one strikeout. Ron Mahay picked up the win, permitting one run, two hits and striking out five in 2 2/3 innings of relief.

Cleveland starter Cliff Lee was saddled with the loss as he went 6 2/3 innings, allowing seven runs on eight hits with one walk and five strikeouts.

Grady Sizemore posted his 17th home run of the season for the Tribe, plating a pair of runs in the contest, while Ryan Garko picked up a pair of hits to extend his hitting streak to a career-best 15 games as the team had it's two- game win streak snapped.

A couple of former Phillies head to the mound for their respective teams this evening as Paul Byrd throws for the visiting Indians and Robinson Tejada goes for Texas.

Byrd, who is on his sixth different major league team in his 12th season in the majors, earned a victory against the Rangers in late April, but is still without a victory during the month of July versus any adversary.

On Tuesday the Louisiana State product was tagged for four runs on six hits over six innings of work versus the White Sox. While the Tribe eventually came away with the 6-5 victory, Byrd was left without a decision.

Despite his win earlier in the campaign, Byrd is still just 2-5 with a hefty 7.02 ERA against the Rangers all-time.

Tejada, who broke into the majors with Philadelphia a couple years back, has not logged a win since defeating Milwaukee during interleague action in early June. Most recently the right-hander threw 4 1/3 innings versus Oakland and while his three runs on four hits was somewhat acceptable, his six walks for the second time in the last three games was certainly not.

To this point in the season Tejada, who is getting his first look at Cleveland, has issued 55 bases-on-balls against just 65 strikeouts.

Over the last week of play Garko has been huge for the Tribe, picking up 12 hits, scored eight times and knocking in six runs. As a team Cleveland, which is now two games behind Detroit for first place in the American League Central, is hitting a strong .291 in the last seven games and averaging better than five runs per outing.

The Rangers, last in the AL West while playing 13 games under .500, are hitting a collective .256 over the last week and while Byrd has boosted his RBI total to a team-best eight, he is still batting just .226 during that span.

Prior to Saturday's loss, the Tribe had won every meeting of the season versus Texas and six straight overall dating back to 2006.

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Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

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