Padres end skid at 10, nip Dodgers to stay alone in first

Baseball Betting Lines

09/07/2010 - San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Hundley homered and drove in two runs, and the Padres snapped a 10-game skid with a 4-2 win over the Dodgers to barely maintain first place in the NL West.

The San Francisco Giants threatened to put the division in a virtual tie after beating Arizona, 2-0, in 11 innings earlier Monday, but the Padres ended their longest losing streak since a franchise-record 13-game string in 1994 to keep a one-game edge.

David Eckstein added an insurance sacrifice fly in the seventh inning for San Diego, which used seven pitchers in the opener of this three-game series. Tim Stauffer lasted four frames in the emergency start for Mat Latos, who was scratched due to the stomach flu. Mike Adams (3-1) pitched 1 2/3 frames for the win and Heath Bell threw the ninth inning for 38th save of the season. He's converted 25 straight save chances, but didn't have an opportunity for one since August 19 at Wrigley Field when the Padres beat the Cubs.

Vicente Padilla (6-5) was charged with five hits and three runs over four innings, as the Dodgers lost for the fifth time in six contests.

The Dodgers had their chances in the sixth and seventh, but didn't capitalize in big situations and finished the night by going 1-for-8 with men in scoring position. They left two men on base in each inning between the fourth and seventh.

Trailing 3-1 in the sixth, the Dodgers put men on first and second with no outs, but Ryan Webb fanned Matt Kemp. Ryan Theriot grounded out, and Brad Ausmus left two men in scoring position when he grounded back to the mound.

Scott Podsednik hit his first homer in a Dodger uniform in the seventh off Luke Gregerson, but Adams escaped a jam later in the frame. With men on first and second, he fanned Andre Ethier to end the inning.

Aaron Cunningham doubled off Jonathan Broxton in the seventh and scored on Eckstein's fly ball to center.

The Dodgers didn't have a man on base in the final two innings.

Hundley hit the first pitch of the bottom of the third over the wall in left, but Ethier's single scored James Loney in the fourth. Theriot lined out to keep runners on first and second to end the inning.

The Padres loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the fourth, and a fielder's choice grounder from Will Venable scored Adrian Gonzalez. It became 3-1 when Hundley singled in Miguel Tejada.

Loney popped out to leave two runners on base in the fifth.

Game Notes

The Dodgers hold a 7-6 edge in the season series...Earlier Monday, the Padres selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Mike Baxter from Triple-A Portland and designated pitcher Steve Garrison for assignment...The Dodgers recalled pitchers John Ely and Jon Link as well as infielder Chin-lung Hu. The club also purchased the contracts of 33-year-old first baseman John Lindsey and 25-year-old third baseman Russ Mitchell from Triple-A Albuquerque. Lindsey will make his major league debut sometime this month after a 15-year minor league career with four organizations.

Wwwplayblackjack Baseball Betting News

<< Indians use Choo's single in ninth to edge Angels
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shin-Soo Choo's single in the ninth inning scored Michael Brantley with the game-winning run, as Cleveland opened a three-game set against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim with a 3-2 victory. Jayson

<< Federer gains quarterfinal berth, rematch with Soderling
Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roger Federer continued to roll at the U.S. Open on Monday, this time scoring a straight-set victory over Austrian Jurgen Melzer to reach the quarterfinals. The second-seeded Federer earned a 6-3

<< Late rally lifts Boise State over VaTech
Landover, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kellen Moore's 13-yard touchdown pass to Austin Pettis with 1:09 remaining in the game provided third-ranked Boise State with a thrilling 33-30 win over No. 10 Virginia Tech in an action-packed season-

<< Red Sox crush wild card-leading Rays
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rookie Ryan Kalish belted his second grand slam and David Ortiz also went deep, as the Red Sox blasted Tampa Bay, 12-5, in the opener of a big three-game set at Fenway Park. With this being the final series fo

<< Phillies split DH with Marlins; pull within half-game of Braves
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chase Utley and Placido Polanco each had two hits and two RBI, and Roy Oswalt won his fifth straight decision as the Phillies downed the Marlins, 7-4, to close out a day-night doubleheader and inch cl

Rex, Woody visit helped seal Revis deal for Jets >>
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) - Darrelle Revis and Rex Ryan looked at each other, huddled in a conference room in Florida, and immediately knew they had the same game plan.The New York Jets' star cornerback wanted to get back on the football field.The bra

Edwards confident in reclaiming Bills QB job >>
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) - Shortly after Buffalo Bills coach Chan Gailey finished discussing how much Trent Edwards has improved this preseason, the quarterback in question walked by and took a spot on a bench outside the locker room.``I think he's g

Clark ready to build on 100-catch season >>
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Dallas Clark knows there is no such thing as a perfect game or a perfect season in the NFL.The goal is to keep improving, no matter what the record-breaking stats suggest.So after posting the two best seasons ever by a Colts tigh

Boise State shows it's a grown up team now >>
They didn't need to dust off the ol' Statue of Liberty play, never thought of pulling off a fake punt.Save those for, say, Jan. 10 in Arizona. That may be the only time this season that Boise State has to dig into its bag of tricks.OK, so the hugely

Iowa State looks to snap TD drought against Iowa >>
AMES, Iowa (AP) -Former Iowa State quarterback Bret Meyer's second-quarter touchdown run gave the Cyclones a 14-3 lead over Iowa back in 2006, and it looked as though Iowa State was set to stun its rival yet again.Little did anyone know, that would

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.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.