07/04/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Streaking Colorado right-hander Aaron Cook makes his 20th career appearance against the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight, when the Rockies host their National League West Division foes at Coors Field for the middle test of a three-game series.
The Rockies won the opener, 5-0, on Friday with a combined four-hit shutout from starter Jorge De La Rosa and relievers Joel Peralta and Huston Street.
Colorado enters the game third in the West, trailing first-place Los Angeles by 8 1/2 games, but entering just a game back of NL wild card-leading San Francisco.
The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, are 20 games out of first place and have the second-worst record in the league.
Cook, a native of Fort Campbell, Kentucky., was just 3-3 after consecutive losses to the Dodgers and Houston Astros on May 26 and June 1. He was unbeaten in his subsequent June starts, winning five straight while allowing just seven runs in 36 innings.
Most recently, in an interleague game at Oakland on June 28, he surrendered just nine hits and a run in eight innings of a 3-1 triumph.
He's 5-4 lifetime against the Diamondbacks in 19 appearances - 17 starts - with a 5.53 earned run average in 107 1/3 innings.
Included is his 2009 season debut in Phoenix, in which he got a no-decision after being ripped for seven hits and six runs in just 2 1/3 innings.
For Arizona, right-hander Yusmeiro Petit returns to the mound for the first time in nearly two months.
The 24-year-old Mexican export was shelved following a 5-4 loss to Washington on May 8, sustaining a strained right shoulder.
In five rehabilitation starts for Triple-A Reno, Petit was 0-1 with a 6.89 ERA.
He faced the Rockies on April 21 in his third outing of the season, getting a no-decision in a 9-6 loss.
The Diamondbacks are winless in six games he's pitched.
On Friday, De La Rosa (5-7) won his third straight start by allowing four walks while striking out six. Peralta and Street combined to hurl a perfect ninth for the Rockies, who were coming off a 5-4 road swing.
Chris Iannetta and Troy Tulowitzki each had two hits and an RBI, and Ian Stewart added a solo homer for the winners.
Max Scherzer (5-6) suffered the loss, allowing five runs -- three earned -- on six hits and a walk, adding five strikeouts in his six-inning start for Arizona, which had almost as many errors (three) as hits (four).
The D-Backs went 15-3 against the Rockies last season, including a 7-2 mark in Denver.
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Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Overnight leader Rafa Echenique birdied the
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D'Backs activate Petit off DL for Saturday start >>
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NEW 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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Huskers' Lucky hospitalized for undisclosed reason
LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky was hospitalized Monday for undisclosed reasons after Lincoln police responded to a call at his residence.
The Nebraska athletic department said in a release Monday that Lucky was admitted Sunday night.
MySportsbook.com has the Cornhuskers listed at +2500 to win the BCS National Championship odds.
A nursing supervisor at the hospital said all questions about Lucky were being referred to the athletic department. The athletic department said there would be no further comment from the department or Lucky's family.
A Lincoln Police spokesman said officers responded to a call at Lucky's residence 11:30 p.m. Sunday. The spokesman said he didn't know Lucky's condition at the time he was taken to the hospital.
Lucky, from North Hollywood, Calif., started six games last season as a sophomore and was the team's second-leading rusher, with 728 yards and six touchdowns. He also caught 32 passes for 383 yards. He averaged 19.1 yards on eight kickoff returns.
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