Angels roll on with rout of Mariners

Baseball Betting Lines

06/05/2010 - Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ervin Santana allowed one run in six solid innings and Torii Hunter continued his torrid stretch with three hits and three RBI, as the Angels remained hot with an 11-2 rout of the Seattle Mariners.

Santana (6-3) won his fifth consecutive start after scattering seven hits and three walks while fanning two for Los Angeles, which has won four straight and seven of eight to move two games above .500 (30-28) for the first time all season.

Hunter, meanwhile, has driven in at least one run in four consecutive games and has nine RBI in that stretch. Maicer Izturis and Howie Kendrick each added two hits, two RBI and two runs scored in the victory.

Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-3 and scored his 1,000th career run for the Mariners, who have lost two straight after a three-game win streak. Ryan Rowland-Smith, starting for the first time since May 17, gave up just one run in five innings, but Garrett Olson (0-1) allowed three runs while recording just one out to receive the loss.

Olson began on the mound for Seattle in the sixth with the game tied, 1-1, and immediately ran into trouble.

Hunter began the frame with a double and scored the go-ahead run two batters later on a Mike Napoli single. Napoli moved to second on a wild pitch, prompting Olson to intentionally walk Juan Rivera.

Shawn Kelley relieved Olson, but the Angels' offense kept producing. Bobby Wilson walked to load the bases with one out, and Erick Aybar made it 3-1 with an RBI groundout. With runners now on second and third, Izturis plated both with a single to left.

Kendrick was then hit by a pitch, and Bobby Abreu walked to reload the bases with two away. Hunter and Hideki Matsui followed with back-to-back walks to force in a pair of runs for a 7-1 advantage. Napoli, the 12th batter of the inning, finally ended the rally with a groundout to second.

Los Angeles poured it on in the seventh with four runs. With the bases loaded and one out, Kendrick drove in two with a single to center, and after an Abreu walk reloaded the bases, Hunter plated two more with a double to right for an 11-1 game.

Chone Figgins' RBI single in the ninth for the M's accounted for the final margin.

Abreu's sacrifice fly in the third inning gave the Angels the early lead, but Suzuki doubled, moved to third on a bunt single and scored on Franklin Gutierrez's groundout to help Seattle tie the score in the fifth.

Game Notes

The Angels played without manager Mike Scioscia, who left the team for two games to attend his daughter's high school graduation. Bench coach Ron Roenicke served as the interim manager, and the Angels improved to 6-0 with him at the helm...Los Angeles leads the season series, 6-2...Seattle's Doug Fister was scratched from his scheduled start Saturday with a fatigued shoulder...Mariners third baseman Jose Lopez had an 11-game hit streak snapped.

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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