Bet Jamaica Daily Sports Roundup: August 28

August 28, 2008

It’s a Super Bowl rematch - preseason style - on Thursday night as the champion New York Giants play host to the New England Patriots. Here’s your Daily Sports Roundup…

Event of the day . . .

The Giants derailed the Patriots’ perfect season last year, and they get a chance to knock them for a loss again when the two teams meet at Giants Stadium on Thursday.

Of course, New York will be without two key defensive players when they take on New England. Osi Umenyiora’s knee injury will see him placed on injured reserve and miss the entire season. Michael Strahan retired after the Super Bowl victory, and despite the team’s overtures he’s not coming back this year to fill in for the injured Umenyiora.

The Patriots are still dealing with Tom Brady’s foot injury, although its severity has not been thoroughly discussed by the team. Brady says he’ll be ready for the Pats’ Week 1 contest, but it seems unlikely that he’ll play on Thursday night. The oddsmakers have the Giants pegged as 2-point home favorites, with the game’s total listed at 36 points.

Non-event of the day . . .

Aaron Harang and Brandon Backe have combined for 25 losses already this season, and each of them will be looking to avoid yet another defeat on Thursday afternoon when the Astros play host to the Reds. Harang is 4-13 with a 5.35 ERA so far on the year, while Backe has a slightly better record (8-12) but an even higher ERA (5.54).

Also on the schedule . . .

There are a dozen more National Football League contests on Thursday night as the league winds down its exhibition slate: Detroit at Buffalo, Carolina at Pittsburgh, Jacksonville at Washington, Atlanta at Baltimore, Cincinnati at Indianapolis, the Jets at Philadelphia, Tennessee at Green Bay, St. Louis at Kansas City, Chicago at Cleveland, Minnesota at Dallas, Miami at New Orleans, and Tampa Bay at Houston.

College football kicks off its season on Thursday night, but with just one ranked team in action - No. 23 Wake Forest takes on Baylor as a 12-point favorite. The other games on the board: UTEP vs. Buffalo (-3), Vanderbilt vs. Miami-Ohio (-3.5), North Carolina State vs. South Carolina (-13.5), Oregon State (-3) vs. Stanford, Troy (-6.5) vs. Middle Tenn.

There are seven other games on the diamond on a light Thursday schedule, including Jon Lester (12-5, 3.49 ERA) vs. Mike Mussina (16-7, 3.45 ERA) in the BoSox/Yankees matchup. In other AL action it’s Toronto at Tampa Bay, Texas at the Angels, and Minnesota at Oakland. Meanwhile, the rest of the National League schedule includes Florida at Atlanta, the Dodgers at Washington, and finally Philadelphia at the Cubs.

As well, the WNBA returns from its Olympic break with five games on Thursday night. Connecticut and Indiana get things underway at 7:00pm ET, followed by Chicago at New York a half hour later. Three western contests then round out the night’s slate: San Antonio at Phoenix, Houston at Seattle, and then finally Sacramento at Los Angeles.

News from the wire . . .

Nationals outfielder Austin Kearns was placed on the disabled list with a foot injury on Tuesday; Elijah Dukes was activated to take his place on the roster . . . Diamondbacks starting pitcher Brandon Webb was knocked around by the Dodgers on Tuesday night and was denied his 20th win of the season . . . Major League Baseball will start to use instant replay on Thursday, allowing umpires to check questionable home run calls.

Peek at the future . . .

There are three preseason NFL games on Friday: Denver at Arizona, San Diego at San Francisco, and Oakland at Seattle . . . the two college football matchups on Friday are Temple at Army and SMU at Rice . . . the Sprint Cup Series returns with the Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday night; the circuit’s pre-Chase schedule concludes with the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway on September 6.

Betjamaica the players paradise

Written by Dirty · Filed Under Baseball, Basketball, Football, NBA and WNBA, NFL 

Comments

Comments are closed.