The Athletics hope Dallas Braden (3-0, 2.77 ERA) can cool off the Rays bats and continue his success against the Rays. Braden is 3-1 with a 3.86 ERA in five starts against the Rays, including 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in three at Tropicana Field. The Athletics need a victory to guarantee a winning month of April for the first time since 2008 and only the second time in the past seven seasons.

Though the Rays James Shields (2-0, 3.96) hasn’t been as consistent as Braden through four starts, he’ll try for a third consecutive win when he takes the ball in this contest. Let’s see if the Ray’s can continue their streak tonight in Tampa!
Present win streak:
The Rays have won 3 straight games.
The Athletics and Rays Stats:
The Athletics: 12-9 SU
The Rays: 15-5 SU
The Athletics lately:
While playing Wednesday’s they are 3-7
Before playing Toronto they were 4-6
After playing the Rays they are 6-4
After a loss they are now 5-5

The Rays lately:
While playing Wednesday’s they are 5-5
Before playing the Athletics they were 6-4
After playing the Athletics they are 4-6
After a win they are now 8-2
Next Game:
The Rays at home vs Kansas City, Thursday, April 29
The Rays are 6-4 at home this season and the Athletics are 3-4 on the road this season. This is a close match-up with both teams having a 45 to 55 percent chance of winning.

The Odds Makers have the lines at present for the Rays -1 ½ (+130) and the Athletics +1 ½(-150) and the Total – Over 8 1/2 (-105) the Under 8 1/2 (-115) and the Rays are -158 and the Athletics are +148 on the Money Line.

Philadelphia (8-4), the defending NL champs are off to a great start to the 2010 ML betting season and are likely an even better team this season than they were last baseball betting season. The reason of course is the addition of ace Roy Halladay who has been dominating NL batters so far in his brief stint as the Phillies’ MLB betting ace.

Halladay has been as close to perfect as you can be in sports betting so far with his new team and has been putting up some of the best numbers in the MLB odds action. He’s 3-0 with a 1.13 ERA and has 21 Ks in 24 innings pitched. And in case you’re wondering that’s an average of 8 innings per starts. He’s already got one complete game this MLB betting season and he’ll sure have a few more by the time the baseball betting season ends.

Halladay should be expected to be the starter in this one as he’ll have five days of rest under his belt from his previous start and if that’s the case you’ve got to like the Phillie’s odds in this MLB betting matchup.

The Braves (7-5) are a pretty good team and will likely challenge for a wildcard spot in the NL playoff betting but if Halladay is on the mound they don’t stand much of a chance in this sports betting matchup. Atlanta is just 1.0 game behind in the NL East standings and would love to gain some ground and maybe even take the division lead by the end of this three game baseball betting series, but this isn’t likely one of the games they’ll win.

Even if the Braves do somehow hit Halladay hard in the early innings that’s only half the battle against a team like the Philadelphia Phillies who also have one of the best hitting lineups in the MLB odds competition. Anyway you look at it, this seems to be one sports betting matchup that the Phillies will win.

The Phillies have picked up right where they left off last baseball betting season and have established themselves atop the NL East standings. After getting off to a great start to the MLB betting season this team has lost some ground in the past week to an up and coming Marlin team that just took a series in Philly to pull within one game of the division leaders in the baseball wagering standings.

Philly will be looking to a little more distance between itself and the Braves with a win on the road in this MLB odds matchup.

Atlanta is just two games behind the Phillies in the NL East baseball betting standings and would love to close the gap and maybe even take over the top spot in the division with a sweep in Fulton County.

One thing is for sure, there should be plenty of scoring going on in this sports betting contest as neither team will be putting their best arm on the mound and we could see an avalanche of runs early.

Atlanta will start the game with Tommy Hansen a very promising right hander who went 11-4 last season and is looking on repeating that performance. He enters Tuesday’s MLB betting matchup with a 1-1 record and a 2.38 ERA so far this year.

The Phillies, despite having a stellar starting rotation will dig deep in the well and start Kyle Kendrick a righty who’s off to a rotten start this baseball wagering season. He’s thrown 9.1 innings and given up 11 ER, as a result his ERA has ballooned to 17.47.

But look for Kendrick to settle down a bit this game and get a few innings under his belt. The Phillies have the better bats in this matchup even if the Braves have the better starting pitcher. And knowing that this game has a huge impact on the NL East betting standings both teams should play hard, but the more experienced Phillies will get the win.

But now that the Philadelphia Phillies traded for Halladay in the MLB betting off-season and the NL batters have to face him all year long, no team or player in the Junior League is pleased at this sports betting prospect.

For the teams and batter of the NL East betting competition things are even worse as they have to face Halladay at a much greater frequency than any of the other NL teams.

On Tuesday the Atlanta Braves (7-5) should get a bird’s eye view of the Phillies’ ace and chances are they’re not going to like it. Halladay has been all but unhittable so far this baseball betting season and he looks like the only man on the planet that might be able to pry the NL Cy Young Award from the Giants Tim Lincecum. Halladay has pitched an incredible 24 innings in his three MLB betting starts (8.0 innings per start), won all three (3-0 in the MLB odds action), struck out 21 batters in those 24 innings and held his ERA to just 1.12. Good luck if you’re the Atlanta Braves, the next MLB betting victims on the schedule.

But the Braves will have an ace of their own on the mound for this MLB odds action. Derek Lowe is likely to take the mound for Atlanta and is a perfect 3-0 to start this MLB betting season. However, unlike Halladay, his ERA is a pudgy 4.67 and it’s been the team’s run support not his stellar pitching that’s padded his baseball betting record. And he can’t afford to make mistakes against a batting lineup like Philly’s –one of the best in baseball betting.

The only way the Braves win this one is if they can hit Halladay early and knock him out of the game. This is a MLB betting matchup that Atlanta’s bats will have to win on their own. Martin Prado and young hitting sensation Jason Heyward have been red hot and they’ll have to continue against Halladay.

If not, the Braves will just one more team on the growing list of NL betting opponents that grew the day that Halladay was traded to the Phillies.

The Mets (2-5), unfortunately find themselves in familiar territory so far this year: last in the NL East. Last year was a baseball betting aberration, or so the Met’s faithful hoped. After being absolutely depleted by injuries it was no wonder that the team finished near the bottom of the NL betting competition. But this MLB betting season was supposed to be different.

With a healthy roster, ace Johan Santana finally in good form and host of free agent bats meant to bolster the team’s meager run production in the 2010 MLB odds action, this was going to be the year the team got back into MLB playoff betting contention. But it hasn’t happened yet and the team’s baseball postseason betting hopes won’t get any help facing a dominating Cardinal staff and stacked lineup.

The Cards (5-2) starting pitching has been among the best in the NL betting action so far this year. Ace Adam Wainright has been all but unhittable (2-0, 1.20 ERA, 13 Ks) and his fellow starters haven’t been bad either. But the Card’s have the luxury of having an off night as well, as Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday have been blasting opposing pitchers so far this MLB betting season (8 HRs and 20 RBIs between the two of them through 7 baseball betting games).

Depending on the pitching matchups the Cards will win at least 2 of the 3 games in this MLB odds series and could even sweep.