Twins hope Baker can cook up win at Seattle
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08/27/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scott Baker tries to win his fifth straight decision this evening when the Minnesota Twins open a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field.
Baker was terrific in beating the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Sunday, as he scattered five hits over seven scoreless innings to run his record to 11-9 on the year to go along with a 4.63 earned run average.
"He was mixing it up," Angels catcher Jeff Mathis said after the game. "He was in and out, up and down. He kept us off balance."
Baker beat the Mariners the last time he faced them, but is just 2-3 lifetime against him with a 4.66 ERA in eight starts.
Minnesota avoided a four-game sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers on Thursday when Francisco Liriano pitched seven innings to win his sixth consecutive decision as the Twins pounded Cliff Lee early and held off Texas, 6-4.
Liriano (12-7) surrendered five hits and two runs while fanning six batters. The left-hander is unbeaten over his last eight starts. Matt Capps pitched the final inning for his sixth save.
"When you have teams competing for the playoffs, you're going to have a lot of good starting pitching," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. "That's why you have a chance in your division and why you are competing -- because you pitch. I think we saw a lot of that in this series."
Delmon Young belted a three-run homer in the second inning off Lee and Jim Thome went deep in the sixth against Alexi Ogando as the Twins maintained their 3 1/2 game lead on Chicago in the AL Central. The White Sox blew out Baltimore, 8-0, Thursday night.
Seattle, meanwhile, also enters on a winning note after splitting a day/night doubleheader with the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday. After losing the opener, 5-3, the Mariners responded in the nightcap behind yet another terrific pitching performance from Felix Hernandez, who pitched into the eighth inning, while Jose Lopez went 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBI to lead the Mariners to a 4-2 win.
Hernandez (10-10) limited Boston to two runs -- one earned -- on four hits and a walk in 7 1/3 innings. He also struck out nine to eclipse 1,000 for his career, becoming the third-youngest player to reach that mark.
The only pitchers younger than Hernandez, who is 24 years and 139 days old, to reach the milestone since '52 are Bert Blyleven (23 years, 121 days) and Dwight Gooden (23 years, 249 days).
"I am really happy about that," Hernandez said, "but I am [happier] to win the game." ' Matt Tuiasosopo added three hits and an RBI for the Mariners, who ended their 12-game road trip at 6-6. The trek was the team's longest since 2004.
"It was a nice win to end our longest road trip of the year," interim manager Daren Brown said. "To end up 6-6 on the trip was big, especially going into two places, New York and Boston, that are tough places to play."
Getting the call for Seattle tonight will be lefty Jason Vargas, who is 9-6 with a 3.43 ERA. Vargas was hit hard in losing to the New York Yankees on Saturday, as he allowed seven runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 frames.
"I thought it was a bit of a rough start, but after the first inning, he was really good," Brown said after that game. "Between the first and seventh innings, he was throwing as well as I've seen him throw."
Vargas beat the Twins the last time he faced them and has pitched to a 1.08 ERA in his two games (one start) against them.
Minnesota has won four of its seven meetings with the Mariners this season.
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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25NEW 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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