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07/21/2007 - Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Beckett struck out 10 over six innings and Boston drilled the Chicago White Sox, 10-3 in a game that saw a home run call blown, leading to the ejection of Red Sox manager Terry Francona in the first inning.
Coco Crisp stroked the go-ahead three-run triple in the fifth inning and Julio Lugo had three hits, including a grand slam in the eighth, for the Red Sox, who snapped a three-game skid.
Beckett (13-3) rebounded from a loss against Toronto and joined the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano atop the majors' victory list this year.
Jim Thome blasted a three-run homer for the White Sox, who had a two-game winning streak broken. Chicago won the opener of the four-game series, 4-2, on Thursday, but Jose Contreras (5-12) surrendered 10 hits and 10 runs over 7 1/3 innings a night later. Contreras, who leads the American League in defeats, dropped his fifth consecutive start and has lost eight of his last nine decisions.
David Ortiz walked with two outs and Manny Ramirez was hit by a pitch in the Boston first. J.D. Drew followed with a deep drive to the wall in left-center field. The ball bounced over the top of the wall and hit a protective panel in front of where fans sit atop the Green Monster before bounding back to the field, but instead of a double should have been ruled a homer. Ortiz scored, but Ramirez was thrown out at the plate.
Francona vehemently argued, as replays showed the ball went over the wall, but Boston's manager was ejected by third base umpire Tim McClelland. Francona then tried arguing with second base umpire Paul Schrieber, but the call remained.
Juan Uribe and Jerry Owens singled to start the top of the third, and one out later, Thome belted his 16th homer of the season, a blast to center field for a 3-1 White Sox lead.
However, the Red Sox went ahead for good with a four-run fifth. Jason Varitek walked and Eric Hinske bunted for a hit toward a vacated left side of the infield. Lugo then bunted back to Contreras, who threw high to first, loading the bases. Crisp then tripled down the right field line, and scored one out later on an Ortiz single to right. Ortiz was thrown out trying for extra bases, leaving the Red Sox with a 5-3 lead.
Boston poured it on with five runs in the eighth. Ramirez singled, Drew doubled and Mike Lowell walked to fill the bases. Varitek then lofted a sacrifice fly to right. Kevin Youkilis was hit by a pitch before Lugo blasted an offering from Contreras well over the high wall in left.
Game Notes
Lugo has a 10-game hitting streak...Boston's Mike Timlin threw a scoreless seventh inning and hasn't allowed a run in his last 14 2/3 frames.
<< Marlins rout Reds behind Uggla's offense
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dan Uggla went 3-for-5 with a home run and three
RBI as the Florida Marlins pounded the Cincinnati Reds, 10-2, in game two of a
four-game series.
Scott Olsen (8-7), who had served a two-game suspension laid do
<< Athletics' Piazza reinstated from DL
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Athletics Friday reinstated
designated hitter Mike Piazza from the 15-day disabled list where he had
been placed with a sprained right shoulder.
Piazza suffered a sprained AC joint i
<< Astros' Oswalt exits early in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt left
Friday's game against Pittsburgh in the seventh inning with a chest injury.
After Oswalt gave up a lead-off double to Ronny Paulino in the seventh, he
complained of che
<< Chakvetadze into Cincinnati semifinals
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze gained a
spot in the semifinals at the Western & Southern Financial Open after her
opponent, sixth seed Elena Vesnina, retired in the third set due to a strained
right s
Beckett wins No. 13, Lugo slams BoSox over ChiSox >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Beckett struck out 10 over six innings and
Boston drilled the Chicago White Sox, 10-3 in a game that saw a home run call
blown, leading to the ejection of Red Sox manager Terry Francona in the first
inning.
Oakland's Swisher exits early >>
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oakland center fielder Nick Swisher left
Friday's 6-1 loss against Baltimore in the seventh inning with a sprained
right shoulder.
Swisher, who is hitting .256 with 46 RBI this season, got hurt attempting a
Blake survives to reach Countrywide semifinals >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second seed James Blake edged fellow
published author and countryman Vincent Spadea 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 to advance to
the semifinals of the Countrywide Classic on Friday.
Blake, whose autobiography "
Bedard, Orioles fan A's >>
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Major league strikeout leader Erik Bedard
fanned 11 batters over seven one-hit innings, as the Baltimore Orioles routed
the Oakland Athletics, 6-1, in the opener of a three-game series at McAfee
Coliseu
“You play to win the game!”
Those are the words of notoriously intense head coach Herman Edwards. Unfortunately, from a bettors’ perspective, most coaches don’t feel that way about the NFL preseason. August is a time to evaluate young players, finalize the depth chart and pray your star players stay healthy.
The trick to making money during the exhibition schedule is identifying coaches – like Edwards – who can’t stand losing even when there's nothing on the line.
The New York Jets betting won 15 of 21 preseason games and went 14-7 against the spread (ATS) during Edwards’s five-year tenure with the club. In his first season as the Kansas City Chiefs field boss, the team improved from 0-4 to 2-2.
Identifying win-a-holics like Edwards is a good start if you plan betting the preseason – even though most say you shouldn’t ... but what the hell do they know anyway?
Here’s a brief rundown of two teams that have a habit of winning during the second-stringers’ season, and another club that has a good chance of exceeding this year.
Playing in the media hub of North America can be stressful but the press can’t write anything negative about the way Tom Coughlin’s boys play in the preseason. The Giants won and covered all four games last summer, improving their record to 7-1 both straight up (SU) and against the spread over the last two years.
Coughlin has shown he’s not afraid to give his starters more time in the second preseason game than most of his colleagues, no doubt one of the reasons his team has been so dominant.
Bettors can count on America’s team early on. The Cowboys are 14-6 both SU and ATS since 2002 in warm-up contests. Former coach Bill Parcells, the coach of the team the last four years, has an intimidating, in-your-face presence – surely a reason Dallas has had so much early success.
The Big Tuna won’t be strolling the sidelines with looks of disgust, but new coach Wade Phillips will be anxious to make a good first impression for owner Jerry Jones.
Dallas plays the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos before things get serious. They then face the Houston Texans in their third contest (the game starters see most game time) and finish off with the Minnesota Vikings.
Expect a Dallas team able to walk away with another 3-1 preseason record.
This team scored a league-worst 12 offensive touchdowns last season, so the rookies and veterans each have something to prove. There’s a bounty of first-unit jobs up for grabs and plenty of bodies competing for those slots.
First-time head coach Lane Kiffin will be eager to impress an owner who employs the philosophy, “Just win, baby!”
The 32-year-old Kiffin has to command respect from a locker room full of players older than him. All of these factors should lead to purpose in preseason.
Don’t forget: before playing like a team that belonged in NFL Europe, Oakland went 4-1 (both SU and ATS) in exhibition games.
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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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