A-Rod hits 37th HR, Hughes dominates as Yankees top Tribe

Baseball Betting Lines

08/11/2007 - Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Phil Hughes hurled six solid innings, and Alex Rodriguez belted his major league-best 37th home run as New York downed Cleveland, 6-1, in the opener of a three-game set at Jacobs Field.

The highly-regarded Hughes (2-1) was spectacular for the Yankees, who have won six of seven games and moved to within five games of Boston in the AL East. In just his fourth major league start, the former first-round pick mixed a sharp-breaking curve in with his fastball to befuddle the Indians. Hughes allowed just one run on four hits, while walking one and fanning six to pick up the win.

Another highly-touted youngster, Joba Chamberlain, picked up from there. Chamberlain dominated the Tribe in two perfect innings, striking out four of the six batters he faced. Mariano Rivera then finished things with a perfect ninth.

Derek Jeter was 3-for-4 and drove in a run for New York, while Bobby Abreu was 1-for-4 with two RBI.

Josh Barfield homered to account for the Indians only offense.

Fausto Carmona (13-7) allowed four runs on eight hits in seven innings to lose his third straight start.

Rodriguez put the Yankees on top by leading off the second with a mammoth shot to dead center, the 501st of his career. Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano then followed with consecutive singles and moved up on Wilson Betemit's sacrifice bunt before Jose Molina's groundout made it a 2-0 game.

The Yankees added another run in the third. Johnny Damon blooped a single just out of the reach of Jhonny Peralta, moved to third on Jeter's single and scored when Abreu beat out a possible double-play ball to short.

New York tacked on another run in the fifth. Melky Cabrera singled to right, moved up a base when Damon grounded back to the box and crossed the plate on Jeter's RBI single up the middle.

The Tribe finally got to Hughes in the fifth when Barfield ripped a two-out homer to center, his third of the season.

The Yankees got two insurance runs off Aaron Fultz in the eighth to put things away. Jeter doubled to right-center and scored when Abreu lined a triple just inside the first base line. After Rodriguez was intentionally walked, Matsui chased home Abreu with a chopper to first.

Game Notes

The Indians honored Larry Doby as the entire team wore his retired No. 14. Doby broke the American League color barrier in July of 1947...New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens decided not to appeal his five-game suspension and started serving the penalty on Friday for the opener of a weekend series against Cleveland. Clemens was suspended for five games while manager Joe Torre was tagged for one game for their roles during Tuesday's Yankees-Blue Jays fracas in Toronto. Torre served his suspension by missing Friday's game...Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James was at the game.

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American Idol odds : Blake Lewis the Early Standout

An important American Idol betting lines recap from February 20 Guys episode. The 12 men came out flat overall with Blake Lewis appearing to have the early edge after the first hour and a half.

Rudy - was quite good singing "Free Ride" to start off.  Randy was not impressed though.  Paula thought he started off fantastic.  "Never had anyone stop off so lively" said Paula but Simon (who does not like Rudy) does not feel he has a distinct voice and was not impressed either. 

Brandon was a little pitchy according to Randy and Paula agreed.  Simon said he was a good singer but the song was "too safe" and he needs to make an impact.  He was listed at +1200 odds or $1200 paid out on a $100 bet should he win the competition. 

Big favorite Sundance came in with a flat version of "Knights in White Satin" and the judges let him have it, including Paula.  Randy claimed the song was out of pitch throughout.

Korean American - and a Jenny Woo favorite - Paul Kim was up next.  Another pitchy flat one but Randy said he still liked his potential.  Kim at +3000 odds was said to have sung a "third rate version of that (George Michael) song" according to Simon Cowell.  He sang "Careless Whisper".

22 year old Chris Richardson was up next.  He was listed with +1100 odds coming in.  He got the best response from the judges though Simon did not believe the vocal was that great. 

Nick was boring and pitchy.  Simon didn't think he was that bad though and predicted he would be back next week.  Nick Pedro was a big +3000 dog coming into this competition. 

Beat boxer Blake Lewis was listed with early +1000 odds or $1000 payout on a $100 bet if he were to become the next American Idol winner odds .  These of course were the early odds.  He was considered original for picking an "odd song".  He did not beat box and the judges felt it was the best vocal of the night. 

Sanjaya came in as the second biggest favorite after Chris Sligh but his performance Tuesday night was not very good. 

Chris Sleigh was the early favorite at +450 odds.  Great voice and a great sense of humor.  He's a real standout.  Randy felt it was on point but maybe ahead of the chorus a little bit.  Simon Cowell said he felt like he was in some "sort of weird student gig". 

Jared Cotter followed.  He was listed with +2000 odds early on to win the competition.  The judges felt he needs to take more risks but looked good. 

22-year old AJ Talbado, who has tried out for American Idol five times, was up next.  "Kind of a theme park performance" said Simon.  Though the judges felt he performed okay.  Simon did feel AJ might be better than he originally thought.

Phil - this season's military favorite - came into this competition with +1200 odds to win the competition.  He was the last to perform.  He was certainly strong enough to get through this stage of the competition and perhaps the best one after a shaky start. 

Tomorrow night, the ladies perform and I sure hope they do a better job than the boys.  Check out all the American Idol betting odds here.

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