Padres go for series win over Braves in Dixie

Baseball Betting Lines

07/22/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Outstanding play at home and the ability to hold late leads are the main reasons why the Braves own the top spot in the National League East.

The Padres overcame both last night.

After an extra-inning victory on Wednesday allowed San Diego to leap past Atlanta for the best record in the league, the NL West-leading Padres go for a series victory over the Braves this afternoon in the finale of a three-game set at Turner Field.

The Braves came into last night's contest 33-12 at home this year and 45-1 when leading after eight innings, but both of those marks took a hit after the Padres tied the game off Atlanta closer Billy Wagner in the ninth inning before claiming a 6-4 victory in 12 innings to even this set.

Wagner inherited a two-run edge in the ninth, but served up a pinch-hit solo homer to Scott Hairston and an RBI double to Yorvit Torrealba to blow just his fourth save in 26 chances this year.

"They jumped on [Wagner's] fastball. Looking back on it, we should have probably thrown more off-speed pitches," said Braves catcher Brian McCann, who belted a two-run homer in the loss.

Nick Hundley then delivered a pinch-hit, two-run double with two outs in the 12th inning to earn his team its fifth win in six games. Heath Bell then struck out the side in the bottom of the frame for his 27th save.

"I took a pretty good pitch to hit 1-0. I wish I would have swung at that one, but then fortunately, I got another at 1-1," Hundley said.

At 55-38, the Padres moved back ahead of the Braves (55-39) for the top mark in the NL and lead the Giants by four games for the top spot in the NL West. The Braves, who have split their first six games since the All-Star break, still lead the Mets by 6 1/2 games for first place in the NL East.

The Braves will try to take today's rubber match with All-Star Tim Hudson set to take the mound.

Hudson is 9-5 with a 2.60 earned run average this year, but has alternated wins and losses over his last seven starts. He allowed a season-high six runs in a loss to the Brewers on Saturday, lasting 6 2/3 innings while also getting charged with six hits and four walks.

The 35-year-old righty is a perfect 4-0 with a 4.14 ERA in eight games (seven starts) lifetime versus the Padres, including a win on April 15 in which he allowed just two runs over 5 2/3 innings of work.

San Diego's Clayton Richard will try to avoid his first loss since June 19 today, though he has been flirting with trouble over his last three outings. Richard has pitched to an 8.00 ERA in that span, yielding a total of 16 runs.

Following consecutive no-decisions, the left-hander beat the Diamondbacks on Saturday even though he gave up five runs on nine hits over 6 1/3 innings. Richard is still 3-0 over his last five outings and 7-4 with a 3.52 ERA on the season.

The 27-year-old Richard is 0-2 with a 10.57 ERA in two career starts against the Braves, who beat him on April 14 after Richard gave up three runs over 5 1/3 frames of work.

The Braves took two of three from the Padres in San Diego from April 12-15 and have won eight of the last 11 played at Turner Field in the series.

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In what should be an outstanding Saturday of March Madness betting action, the top four teams in the South and West Regions square off in what should be extremely close match-ups. Three of the four teams are coming off extremely close games on Thursday evening, only UCLA won semi comfortably over Pitt 64-55.

Ohio State is coming off their second game in a row where in all reality they should have lost. Of course that doesn’t matter now since the name of the game is “survive and advance” but as the tournament continues, they can’t afford to keep getting down to their opponents early. Kansas also avoided a scare by holding off a scrappy Southern Illinois squad. In the third thrilling game of the evening Memphis pulled off the minor upset (+3.5) despite being the higher seed to Texas A&M.

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Memphis vs. Ohio State

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