909 Braves at 910 Dodgers -133:
There are so many reasons to bet on the Dodgers and against the Braves I almost didn't wager on this game. I must have missed something.
Braves:
- Played 17 innings yesterday, not including a long rain delay, and had to fly from Atlanta to the west coast for tonights game.
- Placed three players on the DL yesterday (two pitchers, one infielder).
- Have a horrible road record, 12 wins, 29 losses.
- Injuries have taken their toll as they have struggled both on the road and at home.
- I think their pitcher, Campillo, will be asked to go as far as he can, regardless of what stuff he has as Gonzales, their closer, threw two inning last night. Also, they will be calling up two pitchers for tonights game. That bullpen is razor thin.
Dodgers:
- Have suddenly seemed to turn the corner winning 7 of 10 and just finished a 5-2 road trip.
- Over the weekend activated Andruw Jones and Nomar Garciaparra from the DL and seem to have much more punch.
- Manager Joe Torre is quoted as saying "The guys are into the game. I sense, not that they weren't before, but they're really into it, not that they didn't care before.
"To me, it started on the road trip. After we beat the Angels two of three, maybe they took stock of the situation and realized maybe we're pretty good. I sense a change on this trip."
- Starting pitcher, Hiroki Kuroda , looked sharp off his first start last time out after being the DL as he went 7 innings allowing no runs.
As I said, I wish I could find a solid reason to bet Atlanta, at least to temper my excitement for this game. I can't, so I am on it fairly large tonight.
As a side note: I also took the Dodgers on the RL at +165.
910 Dodgers -133
I am all over the board tonight. This is only one of quite a few games I like.
There is only so much time in a day.
Tim Patterson
