07/03/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Sadowski will shoot for an encore performance tonight for the NL Wild Card-leading San Francisco Giants, who will open a 10-game homestand with the first of three consecutive meetings versus the Houston Astros at AT&T Park.
Sadowski made his major league debut Sunday at Milwaukee and threw six shutout innings in a 7-0 victory, scattering four hits and striking out two batters with three walks. The right-hander was 5-2 with a 4.11 earned run average in 13 starts for Triple-A Fresno before being recalled.
The Giants hope that Sadowski can pitch them back into the win column after losing the last two tests of a four-game series in St. Louis. In Thursday's 5-2 loss at Busch Stadium, veteran starter and 2002 AL Cy Young recipient Barry Zito yielded all five runs and five hits with seven K's and three walks over 4 1/3 frames to absorb the loss.
"Everything they hit fell in, similar to the first two games for us," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. "We didn't play well defensively the last two days either. We made some mistakes we haven't been doing."
Aaron Rowand provided the offense with a two-run homer for the Giants, who went 5-5 on a 10-game trek and sit a half-game ahead of both the Brewers and Cardinals in the Wild Card standings. San Francisco will host Houston, Florida and San Diego on the residency and has won three straight as the host.
Houston recently won three of four matchups in San Diego and recorded a 7-2 victory in Thursday's series finale. Wandy Rodriguez started for the Astros and earned the win with seven innings of one-run ball, while allowing seven hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
Geoff Blum hit a three-run homer and drove in four runs for Houston, and Lance Berkman ended with two hits, three runs scored and an RBI in the win. Carlos Lee also contributed two hits and knocked in a run for the Astros, who have won six of eight games and are 3 1/2 games behind San Francisco in the Wild Card race.
"The key is to keep winning series'," said Astros manager Cecil Cooper. "That's the name of the game and we've been able to do that quite a bit lately and that's good."
Taking the ball for Cooper's club tonight will be Felipe Paulino, who is 2-4 with a 5.51 ERA in 12 games (9 starts) this season. Paulino won his most recent start Saturday versus Detroit, as he held the Tigers to a run on three hits over seven innings. He also struck out nine batters and issued no walks.
Paulino, a right-hander, recorded his first win since May 2 at Atlanta and will face San Francisco for the first time tonight. He is, however, just 1-3 in five games, three of which have been starts, on the visiting mound.
Houston and San Francisco are meeting for the first time since the Astros took seven of the eight meetings a year ago. Houston went 3-1 at AT&T Park in 2008.
<< Federer reaches record seventh straight Wimbledon final
Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Five-time champion Roger Federer
defeated Tommy Haas in Friday's men's semifinal action at Wimbledon. The
iconic Federer will now appear in a men's record seventh straight Wimbledon
final on Sunday.
<< Rockies to open homestand with last-place Diamondbacks
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rockies are back home after a lengthy road
trip and will open a three-game series tonight against the National League
West-rival Arizona Diamondbacks at Coors Field.
Colorado went 5-4 on a nine-game road swing
<< Reeling Indians try to get back on track vs. A's
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians have been playing poorly since mid-
June and will try to stop a five-game losing streak tonight in the opener of a
three-game series versus the Oakland Athletics at Progressive Field.
The Indians have
<< Twins try to gain ground in Central in opener with Tigers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Twins have an opportunity to gain some
ground on the division-leading Detroit Tigers when the American League Central
rivals begin a key three-game series tonight at the Metrodome.
The Twins presently trail
Rangers sign Arnason >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Rangers inked forward Tyler
Arnason to a two-way contract on Friday.
The 30-year-old posted five goals and 22 points in 71 games for the Avalanche
last season.
Over 487 career contests
Blue Jays bring up Dellucci, designate Adams for assignment >>
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Blue Jays purchased the contract of
outfielder David Dellucci from Triple-A Las Vegas and designated infielder
Russ Adams for assignment on Friday.
The 35-year-old Dellucci signed a minor lea
Sol's Abily claims WPS Player of Month >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Sol midfielder Camille Abily
was selected as the WPS Player of the Month for June.
The 24-year-old French international from Rennes had five goals in the month
of June, helping the Sol to
NL West: Dodgers welcome back Manny with road trip >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There's some sort of buzz going on right now in Los
Angeles. Is Eric Karros making a return to the Dodgers? Did Juan Pierre
embarrass himself by rapping in public again?
Oh wait, Manny Ramirez is returning f
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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