Braves go for a series win over Marlins

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08/29/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The National League East-leading Atlanta Braves were able to end their four-game slide with last night's win versus the Florida Marlins. This afternoon they'll try for a series victory over their division rivals in the finale of a three-game set from Turner Field.

Atlanta broke out the bats in a huge way by handing the Marlins a 12-3 loss Saturday in the second test of this series. Matt Diaz homered to highlight a six-run second inning and Martin Prado belted a two-run homer and finished with a career-best five RBI for the Braves, who are still two games in front of Philadelphia in the NL East after the Phillies beat San Diego.

Eric Hinske went deep and Brian McCann drove in three runs in the win.

Braves starter Tim Hudson struck out a career-high 13 batters through seven strong innings, allowing just one run, six hits and one walk to improve to 15-5 on the season.

"I hope that I never have to try to win a game to stop a losing streak," Hudson said. "Hopefully, those losing streaks don't happen for the rest of the season. I know that you can't win them all, but I feel like whenever I go out there, I feel like we're going to have a good chance to win."

The Braves will host the New York Mets for four games after this set.

Derek Lowe draws the start for Atlanta this afternoon and has lost three straight outings. He is also only 2-7 with a 4.20 earned run average in his past 11 starts and pitched well enough for a win his last time out. In a 5-2 loss at Colorado on Tuesday, Lowe tossed six innings of three-run ball to fall to 11-12 in 27 starts to go along with a 4.33 ERA.

The lanky right-hander, who is 8-5 in 14 starts at Turner Field, will face Florida for the 19th time in his career. In 18 appearances (13 starts) against the Marlins, Lowe is 6-4 with three saves and a 5.03 ERA.

Florida had a three-game winning streak come to an end last night and was hoping to see Ricky Nolasco post his 15th win of the season. Instead Nolasco was reached for six runs, seven hits and walked three batters in only two innings of work to suffer the loss.

Andrew Miller did no better in relief and yielded four runs -- three earned -- in just four innings. Donnie Murphy, Emilio Bonifacio and Brad Davis each had an RBI for the Marlins, who dropped 6 1/2 games off the lead in the wild card race. The Marlins are also 8 1/2 games in back of Atlanta in the NL East.

"It was (deflating), but it's going to happen," Marlins first baseman Gaby Sanchez said of the loss. "You're going to lose ball games. Sometimes, you're going to lose them like we did today, 12-3. Sometimes, they'll be close ones, but we just have to forget about today and forget about what happened. Just bounce back, and tomorrow's a new day."

Florida should feel confident with All-Star Josh Johnson set to take the mound Sunday. Johnson, however, is only 1-2 with a 5.06 earned run average in his previous six starts. After throwing eight innings of two-run ball in a win at Pittsburgh on August 18, Johnson did not factor in the outcome of a 6-5 loss against the Mets on Tuesday.

Johnson was reached for four runs -- three earned -- and six hits in five innings at Citi Field. He remained at 11-5 in 26 starts and raised his ERA slightly from 2.27 to 2.36. The right-hander is 4-2 in 13 career games, 12 of which have been starts, against Atlanta.

The Braves are 6-5 against the Marlins this season.

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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.

As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.

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The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.

Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).

But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.

Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.

Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:

Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1

Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2

New York Giants - 9 - 2

Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).

Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.

So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.

And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.

They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.

Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.

But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.

Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.

Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.

Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.

Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?

Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.

In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.

Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.

Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.

The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.

The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.

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