Cardinals edge Mets in 13 innings

Baseball Betting Lines

07/29/2010 - Flushing, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Albert Pujols drove in the go-ahead run with a single in the top of the 13th inning, as the St. Louis Cardinals snuck past the New York Mets, 8-7, in the second test of a three-game series from Citi Field.

Matt Holliday hit a two-run homer and drove in a total of three runs for the Cardinals, who bounced back from an 8-2 loss in the opener of this series.

Starter Jaime Garcia went six innings, allowing three runs on six hits. He also knocked in two runs and scored once. Mike MacDougal (1-0) tossed a perfect 12th to pick up the win. Ryan Franklin recorded his 19th save of the year.

Angel Pagan and Carlos Beltran homered for the Mets, who are 3-10 in their last 13 contests. Mike Hessman and Ike Davis each had two RBI.

Johan Santana got rocked in 5 2/3 frames, giving up seven runs on a career- high 13 hits. Pedro Feliciano (2-6) allowed one run on one hit in 1 2/3 innings of relief to take the loss.

In the top of the 13th, Feliciano recorded a quick out before hitting Skip Schumaker with a pitch. Felipe Lopez followed with a walk. Runners were on the corners after Jon Jay grounded into a fielder's choice. Pujols then laced the ball into left field to plate Schumaker for an 8-7 edge.

Franklin retired the Mets in order in the home half to secure the victory.

Trailing 7-2, New York got a homer from Beltran in the home sixth to cut the gap to four.

The Mets then tied the contest with a four-run eighth. Mitchell Boggs gave up a leadoff single to Luis Castillo, who scored on Pagan's homer to right- center field. David Wright singled and Hessman was hit by a pitch before Jason Motte was called in from the bullpen. He got Jeff Francoeur to fly out for the second out. Dennys Reyes took over and walked Josh Thole to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Davis tied things with a two-run single to right. Kyle McClellan was called upon to get out of the inning.

Each team stranded men on first and second in the ninth.

The Cardinals exploded for six runs off Santana in the top of the first. Lopez led off with a single and came around to score on Holliday's two-out homer to left. Yadier Molina singled, Colby Rasmus doubled and Brendan Ryan was intentionally walked to load the bases. Garcia then helped his own cause with a two-run single. Schumaker and Lopez followed with consecutive RBI base hits to make it 6-0. Pujols lined out to end Santana's 38-pitch inning.

The Mets responded with two runs in the bottom half. A bunt single and two walks loaded the bases with two outs. Hessman drove in two runs with a double off the wall in left. Henry Blanco popped out to end the frame.

Both starting pitchers settled down after the first inning, as a runner didn't advance past second until the top of the sixth. With two outs, Jay and Pujols hit consecutive singles. Holliday followed with an RBI double down the right-field line, chasing Santana from the contest. Manny Acosta struck out Molina, but not before St. Louis took a 7-2 lead.

Game Notes

The Cardinals won two of three at home over the Mets from April 16-18, but lost four of six at Citi Field a season ago...St. Louis optioned pitcher Fernando Salas to Triple-A Memphis and recalled pitcher MacDougal from Memphis...Holliday extended his hitting streak to 13 games...The Mets were without outfielder Jason Bay (concussion)...The Cardinals had 16 hits, compared to 13 for the Mets.

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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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