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MLB Betting: NY Yankees host Cleveland Indians

Is it just a bump in the road for the Cleveland Indians , or is their recent slide signaling the end of the road?

That question might well be answered this weekend in the Bronx where the Tribe visits the New York Yankees for a 4-game wrap-around series.  The first meeting of the teams this season begins Friday night (4:05 p.m. PT) when Fausto Carmona gets the start for Cleveland opposite New York's Ivan Nova.

Cleveland (34-26, +11.5 units) begins the weeklong roadie following a dreadful 1-6 homestand.  The Indians suffered a 4-game sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers before dropping two of three to the bottom-feeding Minnesota Twins.

A shockingly strong start to the 2011 campaign has turned sour the past couple of weeks since Cleveland reached a season-high 15 games above .500 on May 23.  The Indians have won just four of their last 15 games, their lead in the AL Central standings dwindling to 1.5 games entering play Thursday.

The offense has been the primary culprit during this slide, though the pitching isn't without its own share of the blame.  Cleveland's lineup has been blanked four times in the last 15 games, scoring 1-2 runs in six others.  The Indians averaged 5.1 runs per game through their first 45 contests; they're plating less than three per game since that point.

New York enters this series having gotten off to a slow start to a 10-game homestand.  The Yankees came home from a successful 6-3 swing through the AL West only to drop the first two games of a series against their rivals from Boston.  Those losses slid New York into second place, a game behind Boston in the AL East.

Thursday's series finale vs. the Red Sox was still pending, with the Yankees sending CC Sabathia to the hill on a -130 line.  Avoiding a Boston sweep meant beating Josh Beckett who has already topped Sabathia and the Yanks twice this season, with New York yet to score a run against him in 14 innings.

Carmona (5-8, 5.33) is mired in a 4-game losing skid and will be facing a lineup that whipped him twice a season ago.  The Indians have come home winners just once in Carmona's six road starts this year, the right-hander posting a 5.89 ERA away from home.

Curtis Granderson leads a list of Yankees who have enjoyed batting against Carmona, the New York center fielder owning a 1.396 OPS with eight extra base cracks among his 16 lifetime hits. Nick Swisher (7-for-20, 2 HR) and Mark Teixeira (8-for-18, HR) have also gotten their licks in.

Colon End Parenthesis Faith Fraud Ponzi Scam by Trevor E. Reed ...

Everyone, in some way or another, is connected to a group, association or community-based organization. Our interests, backgrounds, and other factors will naturally lead us to those affiliations that best serve our needs. Race, culture, and religious beliefs also play a role in identifying us as members of unique groups that we often come to trust — sometimes to our detriment. Religious affinity fraud also continues to be a widespread problem. And swindlers who prey upon people of their own religion come in all denominations. Some elderly investors were duped into buying bogus promissory notes by three men, two insurance agents and an investment adviser, who often got on their knees and prayed with their victims to gain their trust. In Pennsylvania, several small Catholic churches were defrauded of about $1 million by an investment adviser-parishioner who had won the trust of parish priests. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of potential victims. Securities regulators point out that since many people feel like they've lost out on the historic bull market on Wall Street, they need to catch up. One affinity fraud which targeted members of Christian churches in rural Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri towns raised $7.4 million in funds from at least 125 investors, supposedly to trade in high-yield foreign bank instruments in a secret "prime bank" trading market . The promoters said investors would receive a monthly return of 20% for 12 to 18 months , and that the return of principal was fully guaranteed. To establish credibility within the church-minded communities, they gave the investments various names with Biblical connotations, such as Jubilee Trust Fund, Oracle Trust Fund and Elkosh Trust Fund. They also proclaimed their status as "born-again Christians" and suggested that the investment would fulfill a religious "duty" or "prophecy." They even informally enlisted members of various church communities to praise and promote the investment funds. Consequently, the churchgoers, most of whom were unsophisticated investors, invested in the trading programs based on trust and faith, rather than adequate information . The prime bank trading program did not actually exist and all funds have been transferred to several offshore entities.

CEP Holdings, Inc. D/B/A Colonendparenthesis.net, Trevor Reed, Clayton Kimbrell and Colon End Parenthesis Trust, LLC: Securities and Exchange Commission Litigation Complaint

The textual tradition of Euripides' Phoinissai

Ideas and Details, A Guide to College Writing

Student handbook, including Dictionary for children, [The young reader's companion, Roget's university thesaurus, What happened when].

Cyberpl@y, communicating online