A's aim to extend home win streak over Mariners

Baseball Betting Lines

09/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oakland has played well at home this season and nobody knows that better than the Mariners. The two AL West rivals will go at it again tonight in the second test of a three-game series from the Coliseum.

Oakland recorded its sixth straight win as the host in this series with Monday's 6-2 triumph over the Mariners. Coco Crisp and Matt Carson each hit a solo homer and Daric Barton contributed two hits and two runs scored for the Athletics, who have won three of four games on this nine-game residency.

A's starter Brett Anderson was solid through 7 2/3 innings, as he allowed only one run on four hits with four strikeouts. Craig Breslow and Andrew Bailey went the rest of the way to preserve the win and pull the Athletics seven games behind Texas for the AL West lead.

"It's good," Anderson said of ending his 0-4 slide in five starts. "I've pitched pretty good here lately and really haven't had much to show for it. It feels good to start off this series with a victory."

The Athletics will also host Boston for three games and are slated to send Dallas Braden to the hill this evening. Braden has gone the distance on five separate occasions this season and three times in his previous seven starts. He did not, however, make it past the fifth inning in last Thursday's 5-0 loss at Yankee Stadium.

Braden held New York to a run and two hits in five innings to suffer the loss, falling to 9-10 in 24 outings with a 3.23 ERA. The left-hander, who had won five of seven decisions before losing in the Bronx, defeated Seattle less than a month ago on August 11 at Safeco Field. Braden posted a complete game and yielded just a run and four hits in a 5-1 victory. He is 2-1 in six career meetings (five starts) with the Mariners.

Seattle has lost four of six games and opened its road trip on a bad note.

Jason Vargas lasted just 4 1/3 innings on the hill and was touched for five runs on seven hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings to suffer the loss. Franklin Gutierrez homered and Jose Lopez knocked in a run for the Mariners.

"Probably in my last seven or eight starts, guys have been a lot more patient and I've been throwing a lot more fastballs to counter that," Vargas said. "I wish I would have thrown more pitches down today."

The Mariners will also visit the LA Angels of Anaheim for three games.

Scheduled to take the hill Tuesday for the cellar dwellers in the AL West is Doug Fister, who has lost three straight starts and is 1-10 with a 4.92 ERA in his last 16 starts. Seattle is 4-12 over that span and got a rough outing from Fister last Thursday in a 6-3 loss versus Cleveland. He gave up four runs and seven hits though 5 1/3 innings to fall to 4-11 in 23 starts this season.

Fister, a right-hander, defeated Oakland on August 9 this season with six innings of one-run ball in a 3-1 victory. He is 3-1 with a superb 1.50 earned run average in five career starts in this series.

Oakland has won six of seven meetings with the Mariners held at the Coliseum this year, as well as eight of 13 overall matchups between the teams in 2010.

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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.

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

MySportsbook.com week 1 NFL lines


Now that the 2008 NFL schedule is finally out, it is only matter-of-course for lines on “Week 1” to follow.  Of course MySportsbook.com is the first to churn out odds for the NFL’s inaugural week for the upcoming season.   Expect a lot of fireworks the first Thursday night of the season as the defending champion Indianapolis Colts face off against the surprise of the 2008 season, the New Orleans Saints.  These teams were ranked #1 and #3 in the NFL respectively a season ago so a high scoring affair could be in order.  As of now, the Colts will be giving 6 points to the Saints; keep in mind the Saints were one of the better road teams last season going 6-3 SU and 7-2 ATS.  The first Monday night of the season will again provide a “double feature”. Coming off a disappointing season, the Cincinnati Bengals will look to get back to playoffs and improve their public image as they take on the AFC North favorite Baltimore Ravens.  The second game features a couple of teams that haven’t had too much success recently but each could make some noise if the NFC is as weak as it was last year as the San Francisco 49ers host the Arizona Cardinals. The most interesting game of the opening week will feature the NFC champion Bears as they hit the road to take on the NFL’s top team during last year’s regular season, the San Diego Chargers.

MySportsbook.com Week 1 odds:

Saints +6 @ Colts -6

Falcons @ Vikings (pick ‘em)

Panthers @ Rams (pick ‘em)

Broncos -3.5 @ Bills +3.5

Chiefs -1 @ Texans +1

Dolphins +3 @ Redskins -3

Patriots -5 @ Jets +5

Eagles -3.5 @ Packers +3.5

Steelers -4 @ Browns +4

Titans +6 @ Jaguars -6

Bears +6 @ Chargers -6

Lions +3 @ Raiders -3

Bucs +6.5 @ Seahawks -6.5

Giants +4 @ Cowboys -4

Ravens +3 @ Bengals -3

Cardinals +3 @ 49ers -3

 Super Bowl line (2008)

NFC +6.5 vs. AFC -6.5

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