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Posey busts out as Giants crush BrewersBaseball Betting Lines07/08/2010 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Buster Posey hit a grand slam and recorded a number of firsts in a huge performance, and Tim Lincecum was dominant on the mound as the San Francisco Giants routed the Milwaukee Brewers, 15-2, in the continuation of a four-game series. Posey, the fifth overall pick of the 2008 draft, homered twice and had four hits for the first time in his young career. He also drove in a career-high six runs. Posey fueled the Giants' best offensive performance of the season. Andres Torres, Aubrey Huff and Posey homered in the first inning, and the four total home runs were a season high. The 15 runs were the most San Francisco has scored since May 13, 2007. It was plenty of support for Lincecum (9-4), who struck out 10 and gave up one run in seven innings, a resounding rebound effort for the right-hander. He had given up eight runs in nine innings over his last two starts, both losses. Torres and Freddy Sanchez each finished with two hits and three runs batted in for San Francisco, which also won the first two games of this set and will go for the sweep Thursday. Chris Narveson (7-6) was shelled in his worst start of the season, as he gave up 10 runs (nine earned) in 3 1/3 innings in the loss, Milwaukee's fourth in a row. The rout began early as Narveson struggled with his location, leaving pitches up, and the Giants took advantage. Torres hit the second pitch of the game, a fastball up and in, to left-center for his fifth homer of the year. Two batters later, Huff clubbed a high breaking ball to right to make it a 2-0 game. Following a Pat Burrell single, Posey drove a first-pitch fastball, which Narveson again left up in the zone, to left-center for his first homer. It was the first time the Giants hit three homers in the first inning since August 22, 1999. Rickie Weeks began the bottom of the third with a home run to center, but San Francisco responded with seven runs in the next half-inning. Edgar Renteria and Eli Whiteside hit back-to-back leadoff singles, and a throwing error by Narveson on Lincecum's bunt loaded the bases with nobody out. After Torres flied out, Sanchez ripped a triple to right to make it 7-1. Narveson continued to fall apart, walking Huff before throwing a wild pitch to allow Huff to move to second. The Brewers starter walked Burrell, once more loading the bases, and was removed as Chris Capuano entered into the dicey situation. Posey came up next and slugged a 1-1 slider to right field for a grand slam. The Giants added four more runs in the sixth against Todd Coffey. Run-scoring singles from Renteria and Whiteside and a two-RBI double from Torres made it a 15-1 game. Jim Edmonds hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth off Guillermo Mota to complete the scoring. Game Notes Entering Wednesday's game, Posey had three career home runs and 13 RBI...Prior to Wednesday's game, Lincecum was 1-2 with a 5.67 ERA in five career starts vs. the Brewers...The Giants improved to 4-3 on their 11-game road trip, their longest of the season...The 15 runs allowed equals a season-high for Milwaukee, which also surrendered 15 runs in a May 21 loss at Minnesota.
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Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Iannetta smacked a lead-off homer off major league newcomer Evan MacLane in the ninth inning and the Colorado Rockies earned an 8-7 win over the Cardinals, picking up their second straight magical
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Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Dempster beat Arizona for the first time in nearly 10 years and Aramis Ramirez clubbed a three-run homer, as the Chicago Cubs completed their first three-game sweep at Chase Field with an 8-3 win ove
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.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." 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. To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. |
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