Hit Leads Game For Thames

Baseball Betting Lines

Headlining the NL pitching staff is a trio of Phillies starters in Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels. The San Francisco Giants will also send three starters in Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Ryan Vogelsong as well as their closer -- Brian Wilson. Also making the squad were Atlanta's Jair Jurrjens and the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw, while Heath Bell of the Padres, Tyler Clippard of the Nationals, Joel Hanrahan of the Pirates and Jonny Venters of the Braves will comprise the NL's bullpen.

 

Selected as bench players for the AL were: catchers Russell Martin of the Yankees and Matt Wieters of the Orioles, infielders Adrian Beltre of the Rangers, Asdrubal Cabrera of the Indians, Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers and Howie Kendrick of the Angels, outfielders Michael Cuddyer of the Twins, Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox, Matt Joyce of the Rays and Carlos Quentin of the White Sox and designated hitter Michael Young of the Rangers.

 

Reigning AL Cy Young award winner Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners highlights the AL pitching staff. Other starters for the squad will be Josh Beckett of the Red Sox, Gio Gonzalez of the Athletics, David Price and James Shields of the Rays, Justin Verlander of the Tigers, Jered Weaver of the Angels and C.J. Wilson of the Rangers. The bullpen consists of the Royals' Aaron Crow, Seattle's Brandon League, Cleveland's Chris Perez, New York's Mariano Rivera and Detroit's Jose Valverde.

 

The American League candidates are Alex Gordon of the Royals, Adam Jones of the Orioles, Paul Konerko of the White Sox, Victor Martinez of the Tigers and Ben Zobrist of the Rays.

 

The lead lasted all of five pitches, as Thames took the first pitch he saw over the center-field wall to tie the game prior to Bautista crushing his league-leading 27th home run of the season into the second deck in left.

 

Three batters later Encarnacion added a two-run blast off Lee (9-6), who was charged with seven runs -- six earned -- in 7 1/3 innings. The lefty entered the contest on a 32-inning scoreless streak.

 

Jimmy Rollins had a two-run single in defeat, Philadelphia's second in seven games.

 

Rajai Davis was instrumental in the first two Toronto runs. He tripled leading off the third and scored on John McDonald's groundout; then, in the fifth, he singled, stole second and third and came in on Aaron Hill's two-out base hit.

 

Bautista, MLB's leading vote-getter for the All-Star game this season, scored on a Juan Rivera sacrifice fly in the sixth to make it a one-run game. Victorino caught the fly ball in center and tripped over his own feet to allow Bautista to trot home without a play at the plate.

 

The Jays finished 8-10 in interleague play this season, while the Phillies went 9-6...Toronto has hit at least one home run in 11 straight games...Bautista's 7,454,753 All-Star votes broke Ken Griffey Jr's record of 6,069,688 votes set in 1994...Reyes went six innings and allowed four runs on eight hits and two walks...Lee, who struck out nine and gave up 10 hits, was trying to become the first pitcher since the Dodgers' Orel Hershiser to throw at least four consecutive shutouts. His 34-inning scoreless streak is second longest in Phillies history, behind only Grover Cleveland's 41 in 1911...Lee was one of three Phillies starters to make the All-Star team, joining Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels. Third baseman Placido Polanco was the Phillies' only offensive All-Star starter. Victorino is one of the five finalist for the NL's Final Vote, as selected by the fans.

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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."

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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