MLB Baseball Daily Betting Tips

NLCS Baseball Tips: NY Mets vs St. Louis Cardinals, BET on the Mets to win this series.

Rain last week gave Tom Glavine an extra day to mull over his NLCS Game 1 start, and the veteran went out and threw seven scoreless innings against the St. Louis Cardinals. Monday's rainout puts him back on four days' rest for Tuesday's key NLCS Game 5.

Glavine, who was slated to make the eighth postseason start on short rest in his career, will have an opportunity to swing the series toward the Mets.

The game became pivotal on Sunday night when the Mets tied the best-of-seven series at two games apiece with a resounding 12-5 victory over the Cardinals.

The last we looked, Glavine was on a 13-inning scoreless streak through the postseason that included a Game 2 win over the Dodgers in the National League Division Series and a 2-0 whitewash of the Cardinals just last Thursday night in the opener of this series at Shea Stadium.

That latter victory was also delayed a day by rain, placing the 40-year-old Glavine in the precarious position of having to regenerate the command that led to his seven innings of four-hit ball on three days of rest. Now that complication is out of the way.

Considering that the Mets' starting rotation is short Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez, another big start from Glavine is crucial to New York's chances of going to the World Series for the first time since 2000 and the fifth time in franchise history.

Glavine, who is pitching in the postseason for the 10th time, has never been left this naked in the rotation. When the Braves started to excel in 1991, Glavine was a cog in a rotation that included John Smoltz, Steve Avery and Charlie Leibrandt. Later, it was Smoltz, Glavine, Greg Maddux and Kevin Millwood.

Glavine has been lights-out so far in this MLB postseason, having giving up no runs, while allowing eight hits and four walks in those 13 innings.

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NY Mets -133

vs St. Louis Cardinals +123

O/U: 9

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MLB Prediction: BET on the LA Dodgers to win AL Division Series.

Nobody in the Los Angeles Dodgers clubhouse has the postseason experience of Greg Maddux, but the veteran right-hander wasn't expecting new best friend Derek Lowe to seek any advice before taking on the Game 1 starting assignment on Wednesday in the National League Division Series against the New York Mets.

That said, Lowe will leave the crying towel in the subway. He said that one of the things he learned about any postseason start is how to keep the emotions in check, which, for an emotional guy like Lowe, can be as tough as the Mets lineup.

Lowe finished the regular season 16-8 with a 3.63 ERA, tied for the league lead in wins and ninth in ERA. He has never started a game at Shea Stadium for the Dodgers or Red Sox, but he's made three relief appearances there, and he knows what to expect.

Lowe started one game against the Mets this season, at Dodger Stadium on June 6, and he beat Martinez, 8-5. Lowe allowed two runs in six innings, but the game will be better remembered as the first save -- and final appearance -- of the year for Eric Gagne.

The Dodgers have come a long way since then, as has Lowe. He went into that game 4-3, and the four walks he issued that night were an indicator that he still wasn't on track. In fact, he lost his next three starts while tinkering with his pitch selection.

He went back to relying on his trademark sinker right around the time, coincidentally, that the Dodgers went on a historic 17-1 roll. Lowe was right there statistically with the Cy Young Award candidates over the final two months of the season, going 8-1 and earning NL Pitcher of the Month honors.

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American League Divisional Series

New York Mets -125 vs LA Dodgers +115

Over/Under: 9

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World Series Picks and Betting Tips: New York Yankees to defeat the New York Mets in six games.

It is time to start discussing MLB storylines, because the eight clubs that are in the 2006 Major League postseason are ready to start their World Series hunt. It is the time of year when baseball tells its own stories, when the meek inherit the Earth in the form of a Buddy Biancalana or a Larkin. That's why you watch. But in the meantime, here are some interesting storylines entering the Division Series:

Yes, that guy managing the Dodgers is the same Grady Little who managed Boston to the cusp of a pennant in 2003 before Aaron Boone hit a classic Game 7 ALCS homer to send him packing. Will Little have another shot at Joe Torre's Yankees later this fall?

We'll see.Will Johan Santana and the Twins open their postseason against the A's the way they opened their regular season home schedule against them?

It was a three-game sweep of the A's in April at the Metrodome. The A's took three of four from the Twins in Oakland to open the month of June, and then the Twins won two of three at home on Sept. 11-13. So far in 2006, home field has mattered a great deal between these two clubs.

The Mets won't have Pedro Martinez in October because of his surgery. Will they be able to show the same season-long swagger without him? How will youngsters like David Wright and Jose Reyes handle their first postseason?

Jim Leyland won it all as Florida's manager in 1997, and he admitted that it was hard for his Tigers to keep their same intensity level the last week after clinching a berth and just waiting to see whether it was a division or Wild Card berth. Now the road has to go through a Yankees lineup being compared by many to the 1927 Bombers.

The Yankees won two of three the last time the teams met at the end of August in the Bronx, and they won three of four in the previous series at Comerica Park from May 29 to June 1.

The Cardinals got close in 2004 but ran into a Boston train, and then last year the Astros knocked them out in the NLCS. Can Tony La Russa find an answerfor the loss of closer Jason Isringhausen for the postseason? Will it be one of those rare years when a club opens a new ballpark -- and celebrates a world championship there?

There are many questions, but the identities of the elite eight no longer are among them. The field is set. It's time to play some postseason ball again.

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World Series Tips: Expect the New York Yankees vs New York Mets on the World Series. Look for Yankees to defeat Mets in six games.

There might not be anything better than a San Francisco Giants-Los Angeles Dodgers series to end the regular season with at least one MLB playoff spot on the line.

While the Giants have been eliminated from the NL West and all but eliminated from the Wild Card race, they would sure enjoy knocking the Dodgers out of the postseason -- just as they did in 1991 on the next-to-last day of the season. Two years later, the Dodgers eliminated the Giants on the final day of the regular season.

Another huge story line at AT&T Park figures to be Barry Bonds. Will this be his final series in a Giants uniform?

The second-leading home run hitter of all-time becomes a free agent after the World Series and the Giants must decide if they want him back, or let him test the free agent waters and perhaps break Hank Aaron's record for another MLB franchise.

Meanwhile, the St. Louis Cardinals, trying to hold off the Houston Astros in the NL Central, have the second-best home record (46-27) in the NL. The San Diego Padres have the third-best road record (40-34), so this should be a most interesting series between two teams in the thick of the pennant race.

The Padres, who captured the NL West title with 82 wins last season, have 83 so far this season, but the Dodgers are just 1 1/2 games behind.

The teams met in a three-game series in San Diego in May with the Padres winning two of the games, by scores of 7-1 and 10-8. St. Louis won the middle game, 4-3.

Odds to win 2006 World Series Championship

Odds to win 2006 National League Pennant

Los Angeles Dodgers 3/1

New York Mets 10/11

Philadelphia Phillies 7/2

San Diego Padres 3/1

St Louis Cardinals 4/1

Odds to win 2006 American League Pennant

The LA Dodgers sit only a half-game up in the Wild Card race and a half-game back in the NL West. With October approaching, their place in the National League playoffs could be unveiled this weekend! Get your MLB lines in the Bodog Sportsbook.

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World Series Betting Tips: Look for New York Yankees to defeat the New York Mets in six games.

Yankees-Mets World Series? Are we barreling toward a New York delight, one that won't enthrall the rest of the country quite as much? You know, a Subway Series between the Yankees and Mets.

Those two teams were the first to clinch division titles last week and went into the weekend with the best records in their leagues. Each of them probably go into the postseason as the favorites to reach the World Series. The Mets are certainly the favorite in the National League. The Yankees, who had a fantastic second half, may well be the smart pick in the American League.

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, for one, is convinced of that. Steinbrenner, who has been uncharacteristically quiet this season, told The Associated Press: "We're going to win [the World Series]. We're going all the way....I want the Yankees to keep on winning....I hate to lose. To lose is a failure in my book."

The Yankees have won the AL East nine straight years but have not won the World Series since 2000. The Mets, on the other hand, won the NL East for the first time since 1988. They last made the playoffs in 2000, when they were the losing team to the Yankees in the World Series.

The AL clearly seems the better league, which makes picking playoff winners more difficult.

Both teams have questions, though.The Mets' biggest concern is Pedro Martinez. He has yet to have a dominating performance since recently coming off the disabled list (calf). If he is at his usual level, then they have another ace to go with Tom Glavine. If Martinez is subpar, then the Mets' starting pitching looks suspect.

Martinez was cautiously optimistic after his most recent game, Thursday, in which he pitched four no-hit innings then gave up four runs in the fifth.

The Yankees' paramount concern is the health of closer Mariano Rivera. He made his first appearance in September on Friday, having been out with a muscle strain in his right arm. He has told the New York Daily News, though, that he'll be ready.

The Yankees' other question, curiously, is Alex Rodriguez. He was the subject of an in-depth article in Sports Illustrated last week that examined his relationship with teammates. It has been an up-and-down season for the defending American League MVP. Rodriguez has often been criticized this year but still ranks fifth in RBI and runs scored and in the top 10 in homers.

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MLB Tips: BET on the Los Angeles Dodgers to sustain their hot streak and win the NL West Pennant.

If the Los Angeles Dodgers don't win the National League West, they will have two groups of people to blame. Themselves. And the San Diego Padres.

The Dodgers woke up this morning a half-game behind the Padres in the NL West. Mainly because the Padres have beaten them 13 times in 17 games this season, including a 2-1 decision on Sunday, a victory that lifted the Padres past the Dodgers atop the division.

San Diego owning Los Angeles? It isn't supposed to work that way. San Diego is that sleepy Navy town by the border. A place to spend a weekend, see the zoo, make a side trip to Tijuana.

San Diego's sports teams historically have been national afterthoughts. The Chargers and Padres? Three championship appearances between them the past 40 years, zero championships.

The Clippers? Left town. For Los Angeles. San Diego State? Totally eclipsed by USC and UCLA.

San Diego sports fandom to a large extent is defined by their loathing of all things Los Angeles. Which Angelenos have come to expect from, say, San Francisco or Sacramento, but still find puzzling from San Diego.

About now, they could hardly be happier. What could be better than the Padres taking over first place ... from the Dodgers?

They swept three games from them in Los Angeles in July, dropping the Dodgers into last place, 7“ games back. They swept three in San Diego last month, shaving the Dodgers' season-biggest four-game lead to one game.

And now they have taken two of three in Los Angeles, knocking the Dodgers out of first place for the first time in 39 days with only two weeks left in the season.

Ballplayers are not deep thinkers, and they struggled to explain how the Padres could be 13-4 against the Dodgers and 65-66 against everyone else.

Well, we can put a little more effort into analyzing this.

The Dodgers have struggled to hit Padres starting pitching. In 11 of their 17 meetings, the Dodgers have scored three runs or fewer, and that means trouble for a team with a staff ERA of 4.23.

Another factor, particularly in this series? The Padres' cadre of big-game-tested veterans. Players such as Mike Piazza, Mike Cameron, Roberts and Giles, and even role players such as Blum and Terrmel Sledge.

The Padres seem to be doing the little things that make a difference in tight games. Against the Dodgers, anyway.

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MLB World Series Picks: After humiliating Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees are now in a good situation to dominate the American League.

Another season of Yankees vs. Red Sox, Red Sox vs. Yankees, any time, all the time, 19 times, has come to what might be considered a premature end, in September, rather than October. But this season has provided an epic, although completely one-sided chapter in the history of the rivalry.

The rivals wrapped it up at Yankee Stadium with four games in two days this weekend. Boston won three of four, sweeping the Sunday day-night doubleheader. But this was merely a consolation prize. This season series will not be recalled for the Red Sox having any sort of edge.

This season series was defined by five games over four August days in Fenway Park. The result, the Boston Massacre II, will live on in the lore of this rivalry, although its extended lifespan will play much more happily in New York than it will in Boston.

You don't get a single series changing an entire season very often. If two clubs vying for one postseason spot meet on the last weekend of the season, there will be that impact. But in that sort of series you know going in what the level of importance is. Nobody knew on Aug. 17 what the next four days were going to mean to these two teams.

The Yankees won five. The Red Sox lost an entire season. It wasn't just that the Red Sox lost these games. The manner of the first three defeats suggested a pitching staff losing its center of gravity, not to mention the strike zone. In the first three games, against a Yankees lineup that was both patient and potent, Boston's pitching staff surrendered 28 walks and 38 runs.

On the field, the five-game sweep served to remind everyone that the groundwork for Yankees gains and Red Sox losses had been put in place when center fielder Johnny Damon took the better offer and left Boston for New York. He was always a thorn in the side for the opposition. The Yankees removed that thorn from their side and placed it directly in the side of the Red Sox.

Between playing hard before that series and playing hard after that series, the Yankees won those five games over four days in Boston. That series determined the direction of these two teams in the 2006 season; the Yankees on to October, the Red Sox waiting for next year. This season series stretched from the beginning of May to the middle of September, but it was defined for all times by those relatively few August hours.

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World Series Prediction: New York Yankees to defeat the New York Mets in six games.

Beginning in 1991, the Braves had won every NL East title to be had (the '94 strike nixed the post-season). No other team, in any sport, ever won more than nine consecutive division titles.

Sooner or later, the Atlanta Braves knew it had to end

It turned out to be later, with the Braves winning an unprecedented 14 consecutive division titles before their reign ended last week when they were officially eliminated from the National League East race. It was a feat that likely will not be repeated, in any sport.

The reality finally hit like a sucker punch when Major League Baseball held its annual conference call to coordinate coin flips to determine home-field advantage for one-game playoffs in the event of ties. The Braves were not asked to participate.

It had been apparent for some time that this was the year that dominance would finally end. Done in by a bad bullpen that has been charged with 27 blown saves, the Braves were not able to mount a challenge to the runaway New York Mets.

Unfortunately, Atlanta fans had begun to take the Braves' dominance for granted. They played host to first-round playoff games that didn't sell out, and there seemed to be more of a ho-hum attitude with each division crown.

Rather than being celebrated for their string of titles, the Braves were criticized as post-season "chokers" for winning only one World Series title, in 1995. It was almost as if the streak became a negative thing.

Teams who futilely battled the Braves over the years understood just how special their dominance was, especially in the modern era when free agents jump from team to team at the drop of a dollar.

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World Series Betting Tips and Predictions: New York Yankees to defeat the New York Mets in six games.

NY Mets have lapped the field in the East, but that guarantees nothing once October arrives. In fact, coasting to the finish might sputter away the intensity that their pursuers gain by flooring it.

And floor it they must. Six teams lurk within three games of the NL wild card lead, and a couple of more are only a game or two back, convinced that one hot stretch would be enough to nose in front.

The American League has been reduced to a two-team match race, but the Twins and White Sox could provide a photo finish of their own: they close the season with three games in Minneapolis.

Just as July is for vacation and September is back-to-school, major league baseball enjoyed a few midsummer dalliances before returning the hard reality of stretch-drive pressure.

All those feel-good stories we enjoyed over the All-Star Break? Too good to be true, most of them. The Blue Jays fizzled, the Rockies crumbled, the Reds wore down. That free-for-all in the AL West, where every team was within 2 1/2 games of the lead at the break, collapsed into an Oakland runaway.

The excitement over a shakeup at the top was predictably premature. Only the Tigers, three years removed from 119 losses, have truly been a shock (though the collapse of the Red Sox, once five games up in the AL East, has set off a few tremors in Boston).

True to form, the four teams most widely projected to reach the championship series - the Cardinals, White Sox, and both New York teams - all occupy playoff spots as the season enters its final four weeks, though St. Louis had to survive a pair of lengthy losing streaks.

So down the stretch they come. Seat belts are advised.

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MLB Betting Tips: Expect hesitation to linger around Astros.  And Houston will sure falter and not make the MLB playoffs.

It is a strange thing, playing below .500 in mid-September, but still being solidly in the hunt for the postseason.

But it beats the much more typical alternative, which is playing below .500 in mid-September and knowing that the only postseason you will see is the one on television.

The Houston Astros have not been over .500 since June 22, but they are still very much alive in the crowded race for the National League Wild Card spot.

But the thing was, Garner didn't feel like the manager of a genuine postseason race participant. The Astros have been second-half specialists in the last two seasons, surging from off the pace to win the Wild Card both times, becoming the NL champions in 2005. But their performance in 2006 has not been particularly reminiscent of those efforts. And Garner knows it better than anybody.

At least seven clubs still have a shot in the NL Wild Card chase. On one hand, this is something like what Major League Baseball wanted -- parity, a lot of clubs on relatively equal footing, a lot of clubs with a shot at the postseason with just three weeks left in the season. This is good for competitive balance. This is also good for business.

On the other hand, none of these clubs is exactly tearing up the league. The Wild Card leader, San Diego, was merely 73-68 entering its Sunday night game. The race is undoubtedly close, the race is densely populated, but the race does not necessarily suggest the pursuit of absolute excellence.

Theoretically, this is not the only race at hand for the Astros. After the Milwaukee loss, they were 5 1/2 games behind St. Louis in the NL Central. While the Astros might be better off in the Wild Card race with seven games left against, for instance, the Cubs, this clump of games against the Cardinals at least provides them with theoretical division possibilities.

For a lot of people, the Astros, sub-.500 record or not, have made sense as a Wild Card candidate. They have the track record of playing their best baseball in late-season, highly pressurized situations. And they have the trio of starting pitchers -- Roger Clemens, Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettitte -- that can dominate, although Clemens missed his last start with a groin strain. With the pedigree and the pitching, the Astros still seem, on paper at least, to be logical contenders.

The Astros now have a three-game series in St. Louis that can fairly be termed crucial. With 20 games left to be played, the Astros are in exactly the same position as roughly half of the National League: They still aren't happy about the way they are playing, but they still have a shot at the postseason.

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