07/03/2009 - Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brandon Moss and Ramon Vazquez hit early home runs, and the Pittsburgh Pirates shut down Hanley Ramirez, on the way to a 7-4 win over the Florida Marlins in the opener of a three-game series.
Charlie Morton (1-1) pitched six shutout innings to get the victory, as the Pirates snapped a two-game skid but moved to 4-0 against the Marlins this season.
Moss, Vazquez and Jack Wilson each had two RBI in the win.
Chris Volstad (5-8) was saddled with the loss after surrendering three hits and four runs over three innings. He's dropped five of his last six decisions.
John Baker smacked a two-run homer and had three RBI for the Marlins, who were coming off a three-game sweep of the Nationals, but fell a game behind the Phillies for first place in the tight NL East.
Ramirez came into the game having driven in at least one run in 10 straight contests, extending his club record, but he finished 0-for-4 Friday. The streak by Ramirez was the longest for a shortstop since Carlos Guillen had an 11-game surge for the 2007 Tigers. It was also the longest streak ever for a National League shortstop, since RBI became an official statistic in 1920.
Moss homered to right field in the first inning and Vazquez added a two-run shot in the second
Andrew McCutchen scored on a Moss fielder's choice in the third and the game went into a 44-minute delay in the bottom half.
The Pirates then exploded for three runs in the seventh for a 7-0 cushion. McCutchen doubled in a run and scored on Wilson's two-run double to left.
Baker doubled in a run in the bottom half and scored on pinch-hitter Ross Gload's single. Baker's two-run homer off Jeff Karstens in the ninth accounted for the final margin.
Game Notes
The game was delayed twice for a total of 75 minutes due to inclement weather...The Pirates snapped a four-game road losing streak. Pittsburgh came into Friday night's play 0-5-1 in its last six series on the road since taking three of four games from the Washington Nationals from May 18-21.
<< Hoffpauir's first career hit, Pujols' slam lifts Cards over Reds
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jarrett Hoffpauir came through in a big way
in his major league debut, hitting the go-ahead two-run single in the ninth
inning, lifting St. Louis to a 7-4 win over Cincinnati, in the opener of a
three-g
<< White Sox stay hot, upend Greinke's Royals
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - John Danks was dominant in 7 1/3 shutout
innings, as the red-hot Chicago White Sox extended their season-best winning
streak to seven games with a 5-0 blanking of the Kansas City Royals.
Danks (7-6) h
<< Choo and Tribe pound A's
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shin-Soo Choo went 4-for-5 with two homers,
a career-high seven runs batted in and scored four times, as the Cleveland
Indians crushed the Oakland Athletics, 15-3, in the opener of a three-game
series
<< Bottom feeders, L.A., N.E. aim to gain ground
Carson, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two Major League Soccer clubs stuck in the
bottom third of their respective conference tables square off on Saturday when
the Los Angeles Galaxy host the New England Revolution at The Home Depot
Center.
Rangers get just enough offense to top Rays >>
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hank Blalock belted a two-run homer and
Tommy Hunter pitched 5 1/3 strong innings to collect his first win in the
majors on his 23rd birthday, as the Texas Rangers downed the Tampa Bay Rays,
3-1, in
Bowyer wins crash-filled Nationwide race at Daytona >>
Daytona Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Clint Bowyer held off Kyle Busch and Carl
Edwards in a green-white-checkered finish to win Friday's Subway Jalapeno 250
and record his first victory at Daytona International Speedway.
Bowyer, the 2008
Late miscue forces 'Quakes to share points with RSL >>
Sandy, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Jose Earthquakes and Real Salt Lake
battled to a 1-1 draw in Major League Soccer action at Rio Tinto Stadium on
Friday night.
Arturo Alvarez scored the game's first goal for San Jose before a Chr
Report: NHL to investigate Blackhawks' qualifying offers >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Blackhawks are reportedly under
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Matt Kenseth And Kevin Harvick Favorites To Take NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship
(September 15)—The NASCAR season has hit the homestretch with the opening event on this year’s Chase for the Cup taking place this weekend at the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway. With 10 races remaining to determine the Cup Series champion, leading online sportsbook MySportsbook.com today announced odds on all 10 Chase qualifying drivers capturing the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
One of the largest sportsbook sites on the Internet, MySportsbook.com currently lists the top two drivers in the point standings as the early favorites to win the Nextel Cup. Entering the Chase for the Cup with a slim five-point lead in the point standings, 2003 NASCAR champ Matt Kenseth has been made a slight favorite to win his second Cup at 7/2 betting odds. 2001 Cup Rookie of the Year Kevin Harvick has betting odds listed at 5/2 and four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon is listed at 6/1 to capture the Nextel Cup this year.
Hoping to follow in the footsteps of his legendary father who won six NASCAR titles, Dale Earnhardt Jr. stands at 8/1 to breakthrough with his first Cup victory. Staying with the family theme, MySportsbook.com lists 2005 Rookie of the Year Kyle Busch at 14/1 to succeed big brother Kurt’s 2004 NASCAR title. While Kasey Kahne was the final driver to qualify for the Chase with a third place finish last week, the oddsmakers give him a fighting chance at 10/1 mainly due to several mile-and-a-half tracks remaining on the schedule. Despite going winless on the NASCAR circuit this season, Jeff Burton enters the Chase at 5/1 to capture the Cup title. Meanwhile, rookie Denny Hamlin is 4/1 to win the championship, while veteran driver Mark Martin enters the Chase for the Cup as a 15/1 long shot to win his first NASCAR title in his 24th and final season.
MySportsbook.com will offer comprehensive Nascar betting lines on every race remaining on the Nextel Cup series including driver match-ups, props and odds to win each race. For a complete list of NASCAR odds, please visit www.MySportsbook.com.
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Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
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