Pujols, Garcia help Cardinals beat Nationals

Baseball Betting Lines

08/27/2010 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Albert Pujols hit career home run No. 401 and rookie Jaime Garcia picked up his 12th win of the season as the Cardinals righted the ship with a 4-2 victory against the Nationals.

Matt Holliday also homered and added an RBI single to back the efforts of Garcia (12-6), who matched a career best with seven strikeouts while working around four walks and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings.

St. Louis moved to 2-3 on its 10-game road trip against the likes of non- contending teams in Pittsburgh, Washington and Houston. The defending National League Central champs snapped a three-game skid with the win, but could only stay four games back of the Reds in the division with Cincinnati's win over the Cubs on Friday.

Ryan Franklin labored through a second straight shaky outing, yielding a run, two hits and a walk in the ninth before settling on his 22nd save. He got Ivan Rodriguez to ground to second with runners at the corners to end the game.

Prior to the game, Washington was left reeling at the news that rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg was diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and will likely need to have Tommy John surgery. The team announced the news on a conference call Friday, one day after Strasburg had an arthrogram performed on the arm. The test revealed the tear, meaning Strasburg is likely headed for reconstructive surgery, though a final decision on that has not been made.

The Nationals went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 14 on base a night after halting a four-game skid via a 13-inning 11-10 triumph to open this four-game set. Washington left the bases loaded in the second, third and sixth innings.

Scott Olsen (3-7) took the hard-luck loss, going six innings and limiting the RedBirds to five hits and three runs, only one of those earned.

Franklin, who gave up a game-tying two-run homer in the ninth inning of Thursday's loss, was back at it again Friday as Ian Desmond doubled to start the inning. A fly out by Ryan Zimmerman moved the runner and a wild pitch made it 4-2.

Adam Dunn struck out, but Mike Morse tripled off the top of the center-field wall and a walk to Roger Bernadina put the tying run on. Rodriguez, though, continued the Nats' trend of stranding runners with his game-ending grounder.

Garcia was holding a 3-0 lead when he loaded the bases with one out on a pair of singles and a walk in the sixth. Mitchell Boggs took over the bump to face pinch-hitter Adam Kennedy, who narrowly missed tying the game with a potential hit down the right-field line that landed just foul in front of the warning track.

Boggs went on to get Kennedy on a pop-up and Desmond grounded out to end the inning, but the right-hander was removed in favor of Trever Miller after issuing a leadoff walk to Zimmerman in the seventh. Miller got Dunn to fly out, fanned Morse, and after Zimmerman swiped second, retired Bernadina on a grounder to second.

Holliday provided an insurance run with a shot over the center-field wall off Miguel Batista in the eighth. Kyle McClellan came out to pitch the bottom half and gave up a pinch-hit, one-out single to Nyjer Morgan, who was quickly erased on a pickoff at first.

The second out proved costly as Willie Harris' pinch-hit homer that followed could have halved the lead. Kennedy lined out to end the frame.

The scoring opened on Pujols' two-out shot to left in the game's first inning.

Olsen struck out with the bases full in the second and the Cardinals came back with a pair of runs in the third on RBI base knocks from Jon Jay and Holliday. Both runs were unearned after errors by Dunn and Rodriguez.

Bernadina then struck out with sacks full in the bottom half to keep it a 3-0 game.

Game Notes

The lefty Garcia was coming off his first career complete-game blanking over the Giants on Sunday and lowered his earned run average to 2.33 through 25 starts this year...Olsen struck out five and walked one in extending a personal losing streak to five consecutive starts...He was also on the short end of a shutout in his last start, a 6-0 setback to Philadelphia. He fell to 1-5 in six career start versus St. Louis...Pujols' home run was his 35th this season, marking the eighth time he's reached the mark in his 10 years of major league service...Holliday hit his 23rd of the 2010 campaign...Pujols' 94 RBI lead the National League. Holliday upped his season total to 81...St. Louis has prevailed in 14 of the last 17 meetings and swept a two-game set from the Nationals at Busch Stadium in May...Desmond collected three of Washington's 12 hits...St. Louis managed just seven hits.

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NCAA Football Betting

Many fans thought it was the best side in the nation by the end of last season. This year, the polls have built on Georgia's momentum and granted it the No. 1 preseason ranking, followed by Ohio State and USC. (The Associated Press has the Buckeyes at No. 2; USA Today took the Trojans.)

"To have people believing we have one of the best teams in the nation going into this thing, it's exciting for us," Bulldogs coach Mark Richt told the AP. "I don't think anything is guaranteed, but we certainly have put ourselves in position where at least the college football world thinks we're pretty good."

Georgia Bulldogs - 9.5 wins

There's no question they're good, but the Bulldogs have one of the toughest 12-game schedules in the nation, mostly because they play in the powerhouse Southeastern Conference. Away games at No. 15 Arizona State, No. 7 LSU and No. 10 Auburn loom large, with contests between the hedges versus No. 24 Alabama and No. 18 Tennessee as well as the World's Largest Cocktail Party in Jacksonville versus No.5 Florida.

Ohio State Buckeyes - 10 wins

Like the Bulldogs, the Buckeyes also have a number of tough road contests in 2008. After two scrimmages dressed up as real games versus Youngstown State and Ohio, it's off to face USC. Other tough away games include No.13 Wisconsin in October and No. 20 Illinois in November. Granted, it should be pretty easy sledding at the Horseshoe. In fact, the only ranked team that travels to Columbus is No. 22 Penn State, in October.

USC Trojans - 10.5 wins

A similarly light schedule awaits the Trojans of Southern California, which is why the oddsmakers' total is one win more and the over is currently commanding -150 odds. Pete Carroll's troops only play three ranked teams in 2008, and all of those games are at home. After what should be an easy trip to Virginia to start things off on Aug. 30, the Trojans get two weeks to prepare for Ohio State in Los Angeles. Their two other ranked opponents, No. 21 Oregon and No. 15 Arizona State, visit in consecutive weeks to start the month of October. After that, the competition eases up. Of course, this is the same highly-touted school that lost to Stanford in 2007 and Oregon State in 2006. And don't discount the fact that USC plays its biggest rivals, Notre Dame and UCLA, back-to-back to close out the regular season. On paper, the Trojans are far superior, but motivation will be high for the Irish and Bruins, especially if their historic foes are in national-title contention.

Odds to Win the Heisman Trophy

Tim Tebow, Florida - 7/2
He won it last year, so it's no surprise he's the favorite to do it again, making him just the second player to go back-to-back. Ohio State's Archie Griffin turned the trick in 1974 and 1975, and Tebow's coach, Urban Meyer, is pretty sure his star quarterback can match the Buckeyes legend.

"There has never been anyone quite like him," Meyer told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I am very lucky to be his coach."

Chris Wells, Ohio State - 5/1

The man they call "Beanie" was a star recruit out of high school, so it's not like nobody knew who the star tailback was before he rushed for 576 yards as a freshman in 2006 and 1,609 as a sophomore. But perhaps his finest moment came last year versus Michigan when he rumbled for 222 yards and two touchdowns in the Buckeyes' 14-3 victory over the hated Wolverines.

Knowshon Moreno, Georgia - 8/1

If the Bulldogs are to live up to expectations, they'll need a huge effort from their sophomore running back. This might be the last year of college ball for Moreno, who rushed for 1,334 yards and for 14 touchdowns as a freshman, while adding 253 receiving yards on 20 receptions, so expect big things for the man from Belford, N.J.

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