Phils shoot for eighth straight win, sweep of D-Backs

Baseball Betting Lines

07/29/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - While the Philadelphia Phillies wait for Roy Oswalt to approve a trade to them, they will shoot for a three-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight at Citizens Bank Park.

According to multiple reports, the Phillies and Houston Astros have a deal in place that would send Oswalt to the two-time defending National League champions. The only thing standing in the way is Oswalt, who must waive his no-trade clause.

With or without Oswalt, the Phillies are the hottest team in baseball right now. They won their seventh straight game on Wednesday, as prized prospect Domonic Brown stroked an RBI double on his first major league swing and Roy Halladay tossed his major league-leading eighth complete game of the season in Philadelphia's 7-1 win.

One of the most heralded prospects in baseball, Brown was summoned from Triple-A Lehigh Valley after the Phillies disabled center fielder Shane Victorino, who suffered a left abdominal strain during Tuesday's series opener.

The 22-year-old Brown was in the starting lineup for his big league debut, playing right field, and narrowly missed hitting a home run in his first at- bat in the second inning. He went 2-for-3 with a sacrifice fly and scored two runs.

Carlos Ruiz doubled twice and knocked in three runs for the Phillies, who have won 10 straight at home.

"It's obviously been a lot more fun," Halladay said. "I think it's important we carry it on the road. We seem to play well at home here lately and we need to carry it over."

Philadelphia remains 3 1/2 games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East standings after the Braves beat Washington on Wednesday.

Miguel Montero's two-out RBI double in the ninth inning spoiled the shutout bid for Halladay (12-8), who recorded nine strikeouts and did not issue a walk.

Arizona's Edwin Jackson (6-10) gave up five runs on eight hits and walked two in five-plus innings to absorb the loss, the sixth in a row for the Diamondbacks.

Heading to the hill for the Phils tonight will be righty Kyle Kendrick, who is 6-4 with a 4.60 ERA. Kendrick beat the Colorado Rockies on Saturday, holding them to a run and six hits in seven innings.

Kendrick will be making his fourth start against the D-Backs, but has yet to record a decision against them while pitching to a 6.23 ERA.

Arizona, meanwhile, will counter with newly-acquired lefty Joe Saunders, who was picked up from the Angels in the recent Dan Haren deal. Saunders, an All- Star in 2008, has hit a rough patch in 2010, having gone 6-10 with a 4.62 ERA that's considerably higher than his career 4.29 mark.

"I'm looking forward to the challenge," said Saunders. "It's going to be fun to go out there with my new club and pitch. I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'm anxious to get out there."

Saunders has pitched well against the National League, going 6-3 with a 3.80 ERA in 11 starts that includes a win in his only other matchup against the Phillies.

The Diamondbacks took two of three from Philly earlier in the year, but the Phils are 8-3 in their last 11 against Arizona and 26-16 against the D-backs since the 2004 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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