White Sox try to stay hot in Oakland

Baseball Betting Lines

07/24/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With Detroit and Minnesota nipping at their heels the Chicago White Sox will try to keep their small lead in the AL Central when they take on the Oakland Athletics this afternoon at the Coliseum.

One of the biggest reasons for Chicago's recent success has been the resurgence of Freddy Garcia who has won nine of his 17 starts for Chicago this season.

However, the right-hander has claimed just one win in his last four matchups. The last time Garcia was in action the veteran hurler held the Twins to just three runs, despite scattering 11 hits over six innings. Even though Garcia put forth a solid effort, the White Sox eventually fell to Minnesota, 7-6.

Garcia might be 5-1 in nine road games this season, but his record is deceiving considering his earned run average away from home is a lackluster 5.03 on the year.

This will be the 21st career start for Garcia against the Athletics, and in his career against Oakland, he has been nothing more than mediocre, posting just a 6-6 mark with a 4.98 earned run average.

The Athletics will turn to one of their young arms in Vin Mazzaro, as the right-hander will look to post his second straight victory. Mazzaro has pitched well in recent weeks, winning three of his last four starts, including a 9-6 victory over Kansas City in his last outing.

In the win over the Royals the New Jersey native tossed 7 2/3 impressive innings, surrendering just one run on seven hits, while also striking out five batters.

This will be just the second career start against Chicago for Mazzaro. In the only other showdown, the young hurler shut out the White Sox for 6 1/3 innings, scattering just three hits and walking four batters.

On Friday, Mark Buehrle pitched his second complete game of the season to earn his first career win in Oakland as the White Sox topped the A's, 5-1.

Buehrle (9-8) twirled a four-hitter, one a Jack Cust RBI double, and struck out two without issuing a walk. The veteran southpaw made it eight starts in a row allowing three runs or less and broke through for a win at the Coliseum in his 13th appearance and 11th career start there.

Buehrle bested an Oakland club that had won seven of its last eight games coming in and did so on the one-year anniversary of his perfect game against Tampa Bay.

Carlos Quentin and A.J. Pierzynski each had a pair of RBI in the win, Chicago's third in four games after dropping three straight. Alex Rios added two hits and an RBI.

Trevor Cahill (9-4) pitched seven innings in the start for Oakland, surrendering three runs (two earned) on only four hits and two walks. It was just his second loss in his last 13 starts, with the A's going 10-3 in that time.

Oakland won five of its nine matchups with the White Sox a year ago.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.