Rangers seeking to stretch lead over Angels in AL West

Baseball Betting Lines

07/23/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Runs were hard to come by for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Thursday's opener of a four-game series versus the hosting Texas Rangers. They'll need a quick fix tonight, given Joe Saunders' career-long struggles against Texas.

The Angels, who are expected to debut new infielder Alberto Callaspo, will try to avoid falling further behind first-place Texas this evening in Arlington.

Last night's opener was no easy task for the Angels, who had to face new Rangers ace Cliff Lee, making his third start for Texas since being acquired from Seattle. Lee picked up his first victory since the trade after holding the Angels to pair of runs on five hits over 8 1/3 innings of a 3-2 Texas win. Neftali Feliz recorded the final two outs for his 26th save.

"Any time you get that deep into the game and give the team a chance, you have to feel good about it," said Lee.

Texas went ahead for good with a pair of runs in the sixth inning, getting an RBI double from Josh Hamilton, who later scored on Bengie Molina's sacrifice fly. Michael Young also homered in the win for the Rangers, who have won four of five and six of eight to push their advantage over the second-place Angels to six games in the American League West.

Angels starter Jered Weaver was solid in the loss, getting charged with three runs over six innings. Mike Napoli homered in defeat for Los Angeles, which has lost two straight and three of four.

"That's what it's all about. Going up against the best," said Weaver. "Tip your cap."

The Angels made a deal before last night's game, shipping pitchers Sean O'Sullivan and Will Smith to the Royals for Callaspo. The 27-year-old infielder is expected to join the club today and should see the majority of his playing time at third base after hitting .275 with eight homers and 43 RBI this year with Kansas City.

Callaspo will try to lend his new teammate some support as Saunders looks for his first victory in four starts. Saunders is 0-1 over his last three outings and is coming off a no-decision versus the Mariners on Saturday. The left- hander gave up five runs -- four earned -- on 10 hits over 5 2/3 innings of work and is 6-9 with a 4.83 ERA this season.

Saunders has yet to face the Rangers this year, but went 0-3 with a 16.88 ERA in three starts versus them last year, yielding 20 runs over 10 2/3 innings. Lifetime against Texas, the 29-year-old is 3-6 with a 7.19 ERA.

Rangers' starter C.J. Wilson seeks a second straight winning start after besting Boston on Sunday with 6 2/3 innings of one-run, three-hit ball while also striking out 10 in the outing. The 29-year-old southpaw improved to 8-5 with a 3.23 ERA this year and is 6-2 with a 3.54 ERA in 11 starts at home.

Wilson, who has allowed more than two earned runs just once in his last eight starts, is 0-1 in two starts versus the Angels this year and 1-3 with five saves and a 5.27 ERA in 30 lifetime outings against Anaheim, three of those starts.

Texas owns a 4-2 edge thus far in this year's season series and swept a two- game set from the Angels in Arlington back in May. Anaheim has lost in nine of 12 visits to Rangers Ballpark since the start of last season.

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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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