Marlins send staff ace Johnson to hill vs. Rangers

Baseball Betting Lines

06/15/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A series win over one of the top teams in baseball has the Marlins on the verge of returning to the .500 mark. With Josh Johnson set to start tonight, Florida has a good chance of reaching that mark.

Johnson will aim to win his third straight game and continue his dominating six-start run this evening in the opener of a three-game series versus the visiting Texas Rangers at Sun Life Stadium.

The right-handed Johnson is 7-2 with a 1.91 earned run average on the season and is pitching to a 0.43 ERA over his last six starts, allowing just two earned runs over 42 innings. That includes eight scoreless innings versus the Phillies and Roy Halladay on Thursday as Johnson worked around three hits and retired the final 17 batters he faced.

The outing came just two starts after Johnson was on the losing end of Halladay's perfect game on May 29, but it was the Marlins hurler who came out on top last time.

"I just finally found my rhythm, found my tempo in about the fourth or fifth [inning]," Johnson said. "I was just pounding the zone, I was trying to throw as many strikes as I possibly could, throw my change-up in any count, slider in any count, just located my fastballs down the zone."

The 26-year-old is 5-1 with a 1.50 ERA in eight starts at home this season and has never before faced the Rangers. Johnson, though, is 5-2 with a 3.86 ERA in 11 career interleague starts.

Johnson will try to keep the momentum going from a series victory over the Rays this past weekend. Florida secured the victory with a 6-1 triumph on Sunday.

Jorge Cantu and Wes Helms both homered during a four-run sixth inning, while Mike Stanton drove in two runs. Chris Volstad got the win after holding Tampa Bay to just a run over six innings.

"It was good to win the series, especially against the best team in baseball. We're playing great right now," Volstad said after his club won for the third time in four games and improved to 31-32 on the season.

Cantu, meanwhile, hit his first homer since May 23 and extended his hitting streak to 12 games. He is batting .313 (15-for-48) over his run with 10 RBI.

The Rangers also come in with some momentum after taking Sunday's rubber match of a three-game series versus the Brewers by a 7-2 margin. Josh Hamilton drove in three runs, two on a fourth-inning homer, and Julio Borbon added a pair of doubles and two RBI in Texas' fifth win in six games. That has them one game up on the second-place Angels in the American League West.

Hamilton is hitting .405 (15-for-37) over a 10-game hitting streak with six homers and 17 RBI.

Starter Colby Lewis held Milwaukee to a pair of runs over eight innings, striking out 10 while also going 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBI and a run scored.

"It was definitely a lot of fun," Lewis said. "I didn't even know I had 10 strikeouts. I just wanted to compete and help us win. It doesn't matter if it's hitting or pitching."

C.J. Wilson will try to use his arm to give the Rangers another victory Tuesday. The left-hander has won consecutive starts since a four-game span in which he went 0-2 with a 7.04 ERA.

Wilson's last victory came versus the Mariners on Wednesday after he gave up two runs on four hits and three walks over seven innings, his longest outing since May 13.

The 29-year-old is 5-3 on the season with a 3.52 ERA and makes his first career start versus the Marlins. He has faced them twice in relief, recording two outs and allowing one hit.

The Marlins won two of three over the Rangers when the teams last met in Florida from June 10-12, 2005.

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March Madness odds and printable March Madness brackets

With the field of 64/65 set, MySportsbook.com has the Florida Gators as the 4-1 favorite to successfully defend their National Championship.  Men’s Division-1 College Basketball has not seen a team repeat as National Champions since Duke won back to back championships in ’91 & ‘92.  After losing three out of four late in the season, the Gators are full of momentum as they won their last four games by an average of 18 points.  Not surprisingly, right behind the Gators are the other three top seeds: Kansas 5-1, UNC 6-1, and Ohio State 7-1.  Many consider Kansas to be the hottest team in the country, having won 11 straight. With Kansas, it is hard to ignore all of the early exits from the “dance” in recent years.  With an impressive ACC Tournament, UNC ensured themselves the other top seed.  UNC has about as much talent as any other team in the tournament but with a team that’s best players are primarily freshman and sophomores, could youth be a concern.  Behind freshman sensation, Greg Oden, OSU will look to do what their football team failed to do just a few months earlier.  OSU seems to have peeked at the right time, as they currently have a 17 game winning streak.  Since the tournament field was expanded in 1985, there has never been an instance where all four #1 seeds advanced to the Final Four.  It is obvious that each of the top seeds have the talent to make it through to Atlanta.  But as everyone knows, when makes the NCAA Tournament so special are all of the spoilers and “Cinderella” stories that knock off the favorites on a daily basis.

Be sure to logon to MySportsbook.com to see check out all of the early lines and “March Madness” props.  Also be sure to enter the “$10,000,000 Perfect Bracket Contest”. If someone has the skills to predict every winner, they will be set for life and walk away with $10,000,000.  Even if no one can cash in on the Grand Prize, with a $35,000 guaranteed prize pool and a Mazda RX-8 to the first prize winner, Sportsbook.com’s bracket is a must for all “March Madness” fans.

MySportsbook.com’s odds to win the Championship and Regions:

EAST National Championship Region
Arkansas 300-1 50-1
Belmont 1000-1
Boston College 100-1 40-1
Eastern KY 1000-1
George Washington 75-1
Georgetown 10-1 3-2
Marquette 100-1 40-1
Michigan State 100-1 25-1
New Mexico St. 500-1 200-1
UNC 6-1 6-5
Oral Roberts  500-1
Texas 15-1 5-1
Texas Tech 200-1 5-1
USC 75-1 20-1
Vanderbilt 100-1 30-1
Washington State 40-1 15-1
WEST
Duke 50-1 10-1
Florida A&M 1000-1
Gonzaga 200-1  40-1
Holy Cross 300-1
Illinois 300-1 60-1
Indiana 75-1 40-1
Kansas 5-1 13-10
Kentucky 100-1 40-1
Niagara 1000-1
Pittsburgh 40-1 8-1
Southern Ill. 50-1 12-1
UCLA 10-1 3-2
VCU 500-1 100-1
Villanova 100-1 40-1
VA Tech 50-1 15-1
Weber St 1000-1
Wright St 1000-1 300-1
MIDWEST
Arizona 50-1 30-1
Butler 40-1 30-1
Davidson 300-1
Florida 4-1 4-5
Georgia Tech 75-1 25-1
Jackson State 1000-1
Maryland 30-1 6-1
Miami-OH 300-1
Notre Dame 100-1 20-1
ODU 500-1 100-1
Oregon 40-1 6-1
Purdue 300-1 60-1
Texas A&M CC 1000-1
UNLV 100-1 30-1
Winthrop 500-1 100-1
Wisconsin 15-1 7-2
SOUTH
Albany 200-1
BYU 200-1 40-1
Central CT St. 1000-1
Creighton 100-1 35-1
Long Beach St. 500-1 200-1
Louisville 40-1 10-1
Memphis 30-1 4-1
Nevada 75-1 35-1
North Texas 500-1
Ohio State 7-1 6-5
Penn 500-1
Stanford 200-1 50-1
Tennessee 100-1 20-1
Texas A&M 12-1 11-5
Virginia 75-1 18-1
Xavier 100-1 40-1

Field                                              100-1

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