Mets return home, rock Wainwright and Cards

Baseball Betting Lines

07/27/2010 - Flushing, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeff Francoeur and Jose Reyes each homered as the New York Mets made a successful return to Citi Field by roughing up Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals, 8-2, in the opener of a three-game series.

The Mets shook off their debilitating 2-9 road trip by scoring as many runs as they had in their previous four games combined. The total was the most the club scored since a 9-5 win over Washington on July 4.

Carlos Beltran aided the rare offensive outburst with two hits, a run scored and another driven in, while Jon Niese (7-4) gave up just one run on seven hits and two walks over six-plus innings to get the win.

Wainwright (14-6) came in sporting a 25-inning scoreless streak but was knocked around for a season-high six runs on six hits and three walks in five innings, his second shortest stint of the year.

St. Louis has dropped four of five following an eight-game winning streak.

New York jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the fourth on Francoeur's towering blast to left-center, his ninth round-tripper of the year. Beltran walked and Ike Davis singled before the homer.

The hosts tacked on two more in the fifth via David Wright's sacrifice fly and Beltran's run-scoring base hit to left.

Aaron Miles flied out to leave the bases loaded in the top of the sixth, and Reyes' drive off Fernando Salas in the bottom half reached the second deck down the right-field line to make it 8-1.

Manny Acosta relieved Niese after the starter put the first two hitters on in the seventh and quickly got out of the inning unscathed.

Raul Valdes came in for Acosta after three consecutive singles loaded the bases in eighth and limited the damage to Randy Winn's pinch-hit double play grounder that scored Ryan Ludwick.

Francisco Rodriguez hurled a 1-2-3 ninth to seal the convincing win.

Ludwick's infield single in the first inning scored Jon Jay, and New York tied it in the second on Davis' RBI groundout, which ended Wainwright's streak at 26 innings.

Game Notes

The Mets had lost their seven previous series openers...The Cardinals came into the game with a major league-leading 39-9 record when scoring first...Mets manager Jerry Manuel was not on the bench, as he was serving a one-game suspension for his actions during last Friday's game against the Dodgers...Mets outfielder Jason Bay was not in the lineup and is being listed as day-to-day, as he is experiencing concussion-like symptoms after crashing into the outfield wall while making a catch against the Dodgers last Friday...Wainwright, whose six losses this season have all come on the road, had won his previous four decisions...St. Louis outhit New York, 10-9, but went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, stranding 10.

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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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