Weekly Sports Betting Roundup: July 25

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been great friends to baseball bettors so far this season, and they'll try to keep up their lucrative play early this week when they head to Atlanta for a four-game series against the Braves. That set highlights a sports week ahead that also includes auto racing, pro golf, Week 5 in the CFL, and a Strikeforce event.

Monday's opener between the Pirates and Braves in Atlanta features a pitching matchup between 6-4 James McDonald (4.15 ERA) and 9-6 Tim Hudson (3.39 ERA). Righthander McDonald has pitched his team to victory in six of his last seven trips to the mound, and he picked up a no-decision against the Braves on May 25 (two runs over six innings). Righthander Hudson has earned four wins over his past six starts, and he's allowed three or fewer runs in each of his last eight outings.

Early MLB action this week also includes San Francisco at Philadelphia, the Angels at Cleveland, Detroit at the White Sox, and the Cubs at Milwaukee. Over the weekend on the diamond the notable series include Pittsburgh at Philadelphia, the Angels at Detroit, San Francisco at Cincinnati, Texas at Toronto, Boston at the White Sox, and Arizona at the Dodgers, with St. Louis hosting the Cubs in the Sunday night contest.

On the track the Sprint Cup Series returns from a one-week layoff on Sunday with the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Carl Edwards has the lead in the driver standings heading into this weekend's race, and he's the 7/2 favorite at Bodog to win the series championship this season. Kyle Busch is next at 4/1 odds on that Bodog list, with Jimmie Johnson set at 9/2 odds. Johnson won this race in both 2008 and 2009, while Jamie McMurray took the checkered flag at Indianapolis last season.

Formula 1 will also be in action on Sunday, with the Hungarian Grand Prix taking place in Budapest. Red Bull's Mark Webber won this race last season, with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso finishing second, and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel ending up in third.

The PGA Tour returns to the United States this week with The Greenbrier Classic at The Old White TPC in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia; the tour is coming off back-to-back 'international' events, staging the British Open and the Canadian Open. Stuart Appleby won The Greenbrier Classic last year, shooting a scorching final-round score of 59 to edge Jeff Overton by a single stroke and pick up the trophy for himself.

On the Canadian Football League schedule for this week it's Montreal at Hamilton and Toronto at Edmonton on Friday, Calgary at Saskatchewan on Saturday, and British Columbia at Winnipeg to kick off Week 5 of the season on Thursday. British Columbia has been the team to avoid so far this season – they're sitting at 0-4 straight-up and 1-3 vs. the spread after falling 39-31 at home to Hamilton in Week 4.

Finally, Saturday's Strikeforce MMA event has Fedor Emelianenko taking on Dan Henderson at the Sears Centre in Chicago. Oddsmakers at Bodog have Emelianenko as the -225 favorite for Saturday night, with Henderson listed at +185.