It’s an exciting day for sports bettors. NBA draft odds 2010 are up. In FIFA World Cup odds, Italy is gone from the World Cup following a stunning loss to Slovakia. Italia is the defending champs and joints runner-up France as on the outside looking in at the World Cup South Africa.

Matt Rivers of OffshoreInsiders.com has a Thursday MLB winner on the Rockies. They are laying 112 at home to the Boston Red Sox.

I fully admit that the Red Sox are the much better team when compared to these Rockies and do have a score to settle after that walkoff loss yesterday but I just do not like Boston today in this spot and can see the broom come out in Coors.

For one, Dice-K has the potential to get blitzed today coming off of the DL. The guy is very feast or famine to begin with and if I had to choose one of those here it would be the latter. Coors Field may not be like the Coors Field before the Humidor but it’s still a hitter’s park and a place that can eat up a pitcher who is trying to find his way like Matsuzaka may be today. If his control is off a tad and he starts walking a few batters and then has to be a little too fine he is going to be absolutely blasted around.

Meanwhile for the Rox Jason Hammel is on the bump and the righty has been pretty darn solid of late. He hasn’t allowed a run in any of his last three starts spanning 22.2 innings and in the outing before that only allowed one run in 6.2 innings. I’m not married to the notion that pitchers who are hot are always going to stay hot but at home at this price I’ll back Hammel and fade the untrustworthy Dice-K for sure.

I also do not see the Red Sox as a great interleague team as they lose that DH spot which makes them the AL bashing type of a club that they are. Big Papi may have to sit and all in all Terry Francona’s team gets hurt a bit here in a National league ballpark. Yes they pounded Ubaldo yesterday which proved something but let’s face it that guy had to get hit at some point soon, he’s not Superman and the way he was pitching could not be kept up forever.

Let’s also not belittle how the Sox bats were all sped up for the stud righthander and now may be in a bit of a letdown spot with those same bats that may be moving at a mile a minute.

Colorado has a solid offense, nothing great, but overall is a good enough squad with a solid upside. The bottom line is that there are enough positives today for the home Rox and that makes them a decent small play in my book.

The pick: Colorado -112 at BetUs

For more information: A pair of winners today where both series have the potential for sweeps. 26 of 46 winning days after the Dodgers managed to pull off one of the most despicable 9^th innings that I have ever seen. If you didn’t see it go rewind that DVR.

400,000* Tigers-Mets and a bonus 200,000* Twins-Brewers. Both home teams have taken care of business in the first two games. Does this continue or will it be too hard to sweep these quality enough opponents? I’ll let you know. Click now to purchase Matt Rivers picks

Now to the NBA draft odds: