Astros try to remain hot in Chicago

Baseball Betting Lines

09/06/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Recently red-hot lefty Wandy Rodriguez and his similarly streaking Houston teammates try to make it three straight wins when the Astros head to Wrigley Field today for the first of three consecutive games with the host Chicago Cubs.

A 31-year-old Dominican, Rodriguez was 6-11 on the season after a 4-2 loss to St. Louis on July 11, but has since won five of seven decisions over nine starts while lowering his earned run average more than a run, from 4.97 to 3.71.

The first start in that stretch came against the Cubs on July 19, when Rodriguez allowed eight hits and five runs in six innings to get the win in Houston's 11-5 rout at Wrigley. The victory moved him to 5-4 in 15 lifetime starts against Chicago.

The Astros come into this series after winning two of three against Arizona and five of six overall. Hunter Pence's three-run home run in the first inning stood up as the deciding hit as Houston won, 3-2, over the Diamondbacks Sunday at Chase Field.

Pence finished 2-for-4 and Jeff Keppinger added a hit and a run scored for the Astros.

J.A. Happ (6-2) continued his fine pitching since being acquired from Philadelphia, as he yielded two runs on six hits while walking two and striking out seven over seven frames to grab the win. Astros closer Brandon Lyon worked around a one-out double in the ninth to register his 13th save.

The Cubs counter Rodriguez with rookie right-hander Casey Coleman, a 2008 draft pick who'll start for the fourth time in his eighth major-league appearance.

The Fort Myers, FL native, a product of the fledgling program at Florida Gulf Coast University, debuted in the majors with 2 1/2 innings of relief against Milwaukee on Aug. 2. He made all seven career appearances in the month, including a 9-1 win at Washington on Aug. 23 in which he allowed three hits and a run in 6 1/3 innings.

One start since yielded a no-decision in Cincinnati, where Coleman allowed eight hits and four runs in six innings of the Cubs' 7-5 loss on Aug. 29

In 25 overall innings, Coleman has given up 27 hits and 16 runs. He has never faced the Astros.

The Cubs will be trying to bounce back from Sunday's lopsided loss to the Mets, in which Ike Davis finished a triple shy of the cycle, drove in three runs and scored three times as New York Mets dominated Chicago, 18-5, at Wrigley.

Aramis Ramirez hit a two-run homer and knocked in a total of three runs for Chicago, which saw a three-game win streak come to an end. Geovany Soto also homered in the loss.

Cubs starter Ryan Dempster (12-10) got rocked over 4 2/3 frames, giving up seven runs -- three earned -- on nine hits to suffer his second straight loss. He fanned five batters and walked four.

Houston has got the better of the Cubs for much of this season, having taken eight of 12 previous meetings between the clubs in 2010. The Astros have won four of the six matchups held at Wrigley Field as well.

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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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