Boston's Lester takes mound vs. Rangers

Baseball Betting Lines

07/18/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jon Lester goes for his seventh straight home win today, as he leads the Boston Red Sox into the finale of a four-game series with the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park.

Lester, who tossed a perfect inning in the All-Star game on Tuesday, has been one of the hottest pitchers around, especially at home, where has won six straight starts with a 1.60 ERA over that stretch. The left-hander, who is 11-1 with a 1.90 ERA in his last 15 starts overall, allowed two earned runs over six innings of a 14-3 win over Toronto in his last outing on July 9th.

In five career starts against Texas, Lester is a perfect 2-0 with a 3.55 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 33 innings.

Getting the nod for the Rangers is C.J. Wilson, who is 1-3 with a 3.05 ERA in seven road starts this season. His lone road win, however, did come at Boston on April 22nd, tossing 6 2/3 scoreless innings in a 3-0 blanking. It marked his first career start against the Red Sox.

Wilson, though, is coming off a shaky start last Sunday, when he allowed three earned runs over just 4 2/3 innings of a 4-1 loss against Baltimore. He walked five in his second shortest outing of the campaign.

With Lester and Wilson opposing each other this could be another tight game like Saturday, when Kevin Youkilis' sacrifice fly in the 11th inning gave the Red Sox a 3-2 win over the Rangers in the third contest of a four-game set from Fenway Park.

With Alexi Ogando (3-1) on the mound, Marco Scutaro led off the 11th with a walk. Darnell McDonald then laid down a bunt that Ogando fielded, but his rushed throw to second went off of Scutaro and into the outfield, putting runners at second and third. After an intentional walk to David Ortiz, Darren O'Day took the mound, and Youkilis lofted a fly ball to center that allowed Scutaro to score with ease for the win.

Youkilis went 2-for-4 and tied the game in the ninth with an RBI double, while Ortiz drove in the other run for the Red Sox, who had dropped three of four.

"You don't have to hit home runs to win ballgames," Youkilis said. "That shows tonight. That's one of the things I said in the dugout in extra innings. We don't need a home run."

John Lackey went seven innings in the start and was charged with two runs on seven hits with a pair of walks and three strikeouts. Manny Delcarmen (3-2) got the win for throwing a flawless 11th inning.

Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz each had two hits and an RBI for the Rangers, who have lost five of seven.

Cliff Lee made his second start in a Texas uniform and again went nine innings as he was charged with two runs on six hits with a walk and six strikeouts.

"Still kind of frustrated with giving up that run in the ninth when we've got a one-run lead there," Lee said. "But other than that I'm pretty pleased with how it went."

Boston took two of three bouts from the Rangers in an April series and have won in 12 of the past 17 meetings between the teams held in Beantown.

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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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