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09/06/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Even when Roy Oswalt is off his game, he is still pretty darn good. The Philadelphia Phillies pitcher might get a chance tonight to put his team back into sole possession of first place in the National League East.
Set to pitch the back end of today's day/night doubleheader versus the Florida Marlins, Oswalt will try to win his fifth consecutive decision as Philadelphia kicks off a four-game set against Florida at Citizens Bank Park.
Oswalt was acquired from the Astros prior to the non-waiver trade deadline to boost a starting rotation that already features Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels. The Phillies, who enter this set one game back of first-place Atlanta, hoped the acquisition of the three-time All-Star would help guide the club to a fourth straight NL East title and third straight NL pennant.
Philadelphia hasn't been in sole possession of first place since May 30, a position it hopes to hold after tonight if it can sweep this doubleheader and the Braves lose at Pittsburgh.
Though Oswalt was roughed up for a loss in his Phillies debut in late July, he is 4-0 with a 1.30 earned run average in six starts since and is coming off a victory over the Dodgers on Wednesday. The 33-year-old held Los Angeles to just a hit over 6 1/3 innings, but did walk six while striking out the same number.
"I was a little wild and had no command of my fastball," Oswalt said after that game. When I got in trouble I went with the breaking ball. That's the advantage of having four pitches -- when one isn't working you can go to another one. I was able to put enough movement on the ball to keep them off- balance."
The right-hander, who has allowed just one run over his last 21 1/3 innings, is 10-13 with a 3.01 ERA in 27 combined starts in 2010 and 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA in his three starts at Citizens Bank Park this season.
Oswalt did face the Marlins in a Phillies uniform on Aug. 5 and got a no- decision after yielding two runs over 6 1/3 innings. He is 6-4 with a 3.66 ERA in 13 career starts against Florida.
Florida will counter Oswalt with Anibal Sanchez, who has also pitched well as of late. The right-hander is 2-0 with a 1.89 ERA over his last three starts and after consecutive victories, is coming off a no-decision versus Washington on Tuesday despite seven scoreless innings of three-hit ball. Sanchez also struck out seven to just one walk.
The 26-year-old is 11-8 with a 3.14 ERA this year, matching a career high for wins, and 1-2 with a 4.76 ERA in three starts versus the Phillies in 2010. Sanchez gave up five runs over six innings in his last outing at Philadelphia, getting a loss on April 16.
Today's doubleheader was made necessary when the middle contest of a slated three-game set in Philadelphia on June 9 was postponed. The first meeting between the two teams today is expected to feature a pair of pitchers making their first major league starts.
Going for Florida is Adalberto Mendez, who is making his MLB debut after pitching in the minors since 2003. The 28-year-old went 0-1 with a 3.14 ERA in 12 relief outings this year with Double-A Jacksonville before moving up a level to New Orleans, where Mendez went 5-4 with a 4.14 ERA in 28 games, including nine starts.
"He's a power pitcher, who can throw between 93 and 95 [mph]," Marlins interim manager Edwin Rodriguez told Florida's website of the righty he managed in the minors. "He's got an average changeup and slider."
Though Vance Worley is expected to make his first start in the day game for the Phillies, the third-round pick in 2008 did get his first taste of the majors back on July 24, striking out two over a perfect inning of relief versus Colorado.
The 22-year-old righty went 9-4 with a 3.20 ERA in 19 starts with Double-A Reading this year and 1-3 with a 3.77 ERA in eight starts at Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
Worley will try to help the Phillies get back in the win column after they failed to notch a three-game sweep of the Brewers on Sunday, falling 6-2 to snap a five-game winning streak.
Carlos Ruiz drove in both Philadelphia runs with a double in the second inning and Kyle Kendrick allowed five runs over just four innings as the Phils suffered just their second loss in 10 games. They now lead the NL Wild Card race by just two games over San Francisco after the Giants defeated Los Angeles last night.
The Marlins kept the Phillies' deficit for first place in the NL East at one after knocking off the Braves, 7-6, in 10 innings on Sunday to take two of three in the series.
Emilio Bonifacio led off the 10th inning with a triple, but a foul ball during his at-bat struck teammate Logan Morrison in the left cheek. Morrison was 3- for-4 with a pair of doubles, a triple, an RBI and two runs scored, but was unable to bat. Instead, Scott Cousins' drove in Bonifacio for the winning run with a single, the first hit of his big league career, for Florida's fourth victory in five games.
"I don't think I had time to really put pressure on myself," Cousins said. "I don't know if anyone really expected much out of me in that situation, but I did and hopefully the rest of the team did, and fortunately I was able to get the job done."
Hanley Ramirez clubbed a two-run homer and drove in three runs. The Florida shortstop is batting a scorching .512 (22-for-43) with four homers and 12 RBI over a 12-game hitting streak and is a career .400 hitter (10- for-25) off Oswalt with a pair of homers and five RBI.
The Phillies notched a three-game sweep in Miami the last time these clubs met and own a 7-4 edge in the season series.
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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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The Indianapolis Colts know that winning the Super Bowl last season put a huge target on their backs, and they expect opponents to go all-out to knock them from the top of the mountain.
They’ll get their first test from the New Orleans Saints this Thursday night. The defending champs had nothing but good things to say about the New Orleans defense this past week, praising their opponents’ pass rush and run-stopping abilities.
"They play very aggressively," head coach Tony Dungy told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "They play a lot of man-to-man coverage, and they come after you. They have good pass rushers, and they're going to try to pressure us, I'm sure."
Both center Jeff Saturday and quarterback Peyton Manning gave New Orleans’ front four props, admitting keeping guys like Will Smithand Charles Grant contained would be a tall task for the offensive line.
New Orleans ranked second in total defense during the preseason at a sportsbook, allowing just under 233 yards per game. Last season, the defense finished 11th in the league after giving up 307.3 yards and 20.1 points per contest.
Not so sound on the ground
If Indianapolis' efficient offense has a weakness it has to be its running attack. The Colts one-two-punch of Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai is no longer, leaving the bulk of the carries to Addai, the second-year back out of LSU.
Former Saskatchewan Roughrider Kenton Keith was named Addai’s backup this week after beating out DeDe Dorsey for the second-string position. Indy has only three backs on the roster right now, including fullback Luke Lawton, and coach Dungy is aware of the thinness of his ground game. Sports Betting lines on the game can be found at BettingExpress.com
“We’ll continue to look. Luke Lawton’s done a good job for us too. So probably getting a third true tailback is something that we’d like to do,” Dungy told the Indiana Tribune-Star.
Last season, Addai rushed for over 1,000 yards in his rookie campaign and scored seven touchdowns on the ground.
Brees says bring it on
Opening the season on the road against the defending Super Bowl champions is not the way most teams would like to kick off their year – unless you’re the New Orleans Saints or their quarterback Drew Brees. This internet Sportsbooks had the Saints as the favorites.
Brees told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he is excited to get the regular season started and the Colts are a great challenge for him and his teammates. The 28-year-old QB, entering his second season with the Saints, is expecting a wild environment in the RCA Dome this Thursday when the franchise celebrates its 2007-2007 championship.
Brees said he sees the opening game scheduling as an honor and a testament to how well New Orleans did last season. The Saints missed facing the Colts in the Super Bowl by one game, losing to the Chicago Bearsin the NFC Championship game.
"I mean, people think we can hang with these guys," Brees told reporters. "Even if they didn't, it wouldn't matter what they thought because as a team we're very confident. We know what we can do. We're not satisfied where we finished the season last year. And we've been looking forward to this opportunity for a long time."
SportsBooks ready for a shootout
Oddsmakers are preparing for some fireworks this Thursday when the NFL season kicks off. online Sportsbooks have Thursday’s total set at a whopping 52 points, accounting for two of the league’s most explosive offenses.
“This is like must-see TV,” Saints cornerback and former Colt Jason David told the Baton Rouge Advocate. “It’s two exciting offenses with great players. You’ve got a lot of star power on offense. At any given time a big play can happen. If I was a fan, I wouldn’t miss a snap.”
New Orleans, who ranked No.1 in total offense last season, can go blow-for-blow with the Colts’ attack. Head coach Sean Payton’s offensive schemes will get even better production out of Drew Brees, Reggie Bush and receiver Marques Colston now that they’ve each had a season of playing together under their belts.
The Saints and Colts were the top two passing teams in the NFL last year, but while Indianapolis managed to put up almost 27 points per game, New Orleans struggled to capitalize on their efforts. The Saints ranked fifth in points per game.
“Yards are great,” running backDeuce McAllister told reporters, “but to be able to score more touchdowns would be important for us.”
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts US credit cards
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