Cards hope to revive postseason hopes in opener with Reds
Baseball Betting Lines
09/03/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The last time the Cardinals faced the Reds, they completed a three-game sweep that gave them sole possession of first place in the National League Central.
The teams have drastically gone in opposite directions since.
First-place Cincinnati will try to extend its eight-game lead over second- place St. Louis this evening in the opener of a three-game series at Busch Stadium that by the end could put the division crown out of reach for the hosts.
The Cardinals have won four straight and 10 of 15 versus the Reds this year and they posted a three-game sweep in the last meeting from Aug. 8-11 -- a series that featured a benches-clearing brawl thanks to some unkind words towards St. Louis by Cincinnati's Brandon Phillips -- to take a one-game edge for the top spot in the division.
"They silenced our bats a little bit and we didn't pitch that great," Reds starter Bronson Arroyo said after the sweep. "It's not even close to being over. We have plenty of games left."
The Reds have made the most of their games since the series, winning 14 of 18, while the Cardinals have gone 5-13 and have matched a season high with five straight losses to give the Reds their largest division lead of the season.
Arroyo lost the finale of that sweep but gets the first chance at extending his team's current division lead. The right-hander yielded four runs over five innings back on Aug. 11 to fall to 1-2 with a 4.78 earned run average in four starts this year versus the Cardinals. That includes an outing at Busch Stadium on May 31 when he was drilled for seven runs over 4 1/3 frames.
Arroyo has a 2.61 ERA over his last seven starts though and is 14-8 with a 3.82 ERA on the season. The 33-year-old is coming off just his second loss in six starts (4-2) as he gave up three runs on five hits over seven innings against the Cubs on Saturday.
While Arroyo has had his troubles with the Cardinals this year, St. Louis rookie Jaime Garcia has won all three of his starts in 2010 against the Reds with a 4.08 ERA. His latest win in the series came on Aug. 10 despite giving up four runs on two hits and five walks over 5 1/3 innings.
Garcia, though, hasn't allowed an earned run in 20 1/3 consecutive innings, fanning 19 in that span. His run began in a loss to the Brewers on Aug. 17 in which he was touched for three unearned runs over six innings.
The 24-year-old southpaw responded with his first career shutout, a three- hitter versus the Giants on Aug. 22 and then won his second straight start last Friday after posting 5 1/3 scoreless innings in Washington while working around eight hits and four walks with seven strikeouts.
Garcia is 12-6 with a 2.33 ERA this year and sports a 1.55 ERA in 12 starts at home. He'll be looking tonight to halt a four-game winning streak by the Reds, a burst that includes a three-game sweep of the Brewers.
Cincinnati wrapped the series with Wednesday's 6-1 victory, scoring all of its runs in the seventh inning. Ryan Hanigan blasted a three-run homer in the frame, while Scott Rolen capped the burst with a two-run single.
The victory also featured the first win of Aroldis Chapman's major league career. The 22-year-old Cuban lefty has yet to allow a hit over his two appearances, striking out three over two inning while unleashing a fastball that has gone over 100 mph.
Fans would be in for a treat if Chapman faces the Cardinals' Albert Pujols, who is hitting .358 (19-for-53) in 15 games this year against the Reds with three homers and 14 RBI. However, Pujols went hitless in 10 at-bats in St. Louis' three-game sweep at the hands of Houston.
The Cardinals were bested, 5-2, in Wednesday's finale. Matt Holliday drilled a two-run homer as St. Louis wrapped a 10-game road trip 2-8.
"We have to play better, obviously, but you just have to focus on the next game," Holliday said. "Sometimes if you get out and look at the big picture instead of focusing on the job at hand, you lose focus."
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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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