Sports Betting – Taking A Look At Thursday’s Slate

[Freddy Wills]

Players making may be a bit nervous that there won’t be a season because of the lockout, but since that is out of their hands, they should be checking out the action that is going on in their sportsbook, and there is a lot of variety as baseball shares the stage with tennis, soccer and golf.

MLB Betting

Mets Tigers Betting (1:05 PM ET): Detroit’s Justin Verlander will try to continue his brilliant pitching as of late against the Mets, who will counter with Mike Pelfrey.

Brewers Yankees Betting (1:05 PM ET): The Yankees will send out C.C. Sabathia, who pitched a phenomenal half-season with the Brewers in 2008, while Milwaukee will have Randy Wolf on the hill in the Bronx.

Red Sox Phillies Betting (1:05 PM ET): In the best pitching matchup of the day, the Red Sox will send out Jon Lester to take on Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels in a battle of the talented southpaws. Look for the Phillies to be favorites, but it will be very close.

Giants Cubs Betting (2:20 PM ET): The fiery Carlos Zambrano will lead the Cubs out at Wrigley on Thursday afternoon, while the Giants will go with Matt Cain.

Tennis Betting

Wimbledon Betting (8:00 AM ET): The women’s semifinals will take place at the All England Club on Thursday morning, as former champion Maria Sharapova will go up against Sabine Lisicki as a -260 favorite, while Lisicki is rated at +200. In the other semifinal, Victoria Azarenka is slated to take on Petra Kvitova, who is a slight -120 favorite.

Soccer Betting

Canada France Betting (12:00 PM ET): In women’s World Cup action, France is a +140 favorite over Canada, who is listed at +160, while a draw comes in at +190, and the winner of this match will likely go on to take second place behind Germany, the hosts of the tournament who play Nigeria in the next match on Thursday.

Golf Betting

The AT&T National officially tees off at 7:20 AM at Aronimink Golf Club, but there are a few groups to watch; Anthony Kim, Sean O’Hair and Cameron Beckman will tee off on 8:04 AM ET, while the action really heats up in the afternoon with defending champion Justin Rose, 2007 champion K.J. Choi (who won when the tournament was held at Congressional) and Adam Scott; Jim Furyk, Hunter Mahan and Erik Compton at 1:06 PM ET, while Ryan Moore, Vijay Singh and Brian Gay will tee off from the No.10 tee at the same time as the Furyk group goes off from No.1. Check out the first day to figure out who your picks will be for the weekend.