Dodgers head home to face Giants

Baseball Betting Lines

07/19/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After getting swept in four games at St. Louis over the weekend, the Los Angeles Dodgers are back at home and will try to regroup in tonight's opener of a three-game set versus the NL West-rival San Francisco Giants at Chavez Ravine.

Pitching and scoring runs is what usually propels teams to victory. The Dodgers did none of that against the Cardinals, but did show signs of hope in a 5-4 loss Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium. With the Dodgers clinging to a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the ninth, closer Jonathan Broxton gave up four hits and a pair of runs with two outs to absorb the loss. Allen Craig and Matt Holliday lifted the home team to victory with back-to-back RBI singles.

"I got myself in bad counts and walked guys," Broxton said.

Vicente Padilla started for LA and did his part with six shutout innings, while Travis Schlichting gave up two runs before Justin Miller permitted another in relief. Broxton then tossed the final 1 1/3 frames.

Matt Kemp, Garret Anderson and Padilla each drove in a run for the Dodgers, who are 5 1/2 games behind San Diego for bragging rights in the competitive National League West Division. Los Angeles will also host the New York Mets for four games on this residency.

The Dodgers are expected to call up right-handed pitcher James McDonald from Triple-A Albuquerque for tonight's start. McDonald is 6-1 with a 4.41 earned run average in 12 starts for the Isotopes this season and is expected to make his fifth career start tonight. In 45 games (4 starts) for LA last season, McDonald went 5-5 with a 4.00 ERA.

McDonald has faced San Francisco seven times in relief, going 0-0 with a 1.93 ERA over 9 1/3 innings of work.

Meanwhile, the Giants were aiming for their sixth straight win and a three- game sweep of the New York Mets before suffering a 4-3 setback in 10 innings on Sunday. Closer Brian Wilson gave up the go-ahead RBI double to Ike Davis in the top of the 10th and suffered the loss after the Giants failed to produce any runs in the home half.

Travis Ishikawa tied the game off Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez with a pinch-hit two-run single in the bottom of the ninth and Buster Posey knocked in the other run for the Giants, who lost for only the second time in 11 tries and fell 4 1/2 games off the lead in the NL West.

"This club's been resilient. We showed it last road trip and now we have to bounce back from this one," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said on the team's site. "This was a tough one. This is one we had and I feel for those guys because they battled hard. But we've got to be ready to go [Monday] and we know we have to play better in our division and put this behind us."

Jonathan Sanchez started for Bochy's club yesterday and did not record a decision for hurling seven innings of two-run ball. The Giants, who will host Arizona for four games by the Bay on this homestand, are expected to send young pitching prospect Madison Bumgarner to the mound Monday night.

Bumgarner is 2-2 with a 2.57 earned run average in four starts this season and has won back-to-back starts. In a 6-2 win at Washington the previous time out on July 11, he held the Nationals to one run on seven hits in six innings. The lefty faced the Dodgers once in relief during a 12-1 road loss on September 19 last season and struck out a pair of batters.

Los Angeles has won five of the first six matchups with San Francisco this season and is riding a four-game winning streak in the series. The Dodgers swept the Giants in three games by the Bay from June 28-30 and have won 11 of the past 15 meeting between the ballclubs.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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MySportsbook.com Releases World Series Championship Lines

New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox early favorites to win 2008 World Series
The Major League Baseball season starts this weekend and MySportsbook.com, a leading online sportsbook for over 8 years, is the first to offer baseball sports betting lines on who will win the 2007 World Series.

"The World Series is the biggest baseball event in the sports betting world and MySportsbook.com is excited that we are first to market with betting lines on every team," says Tim Dalton, Marketing Director, MySportsbook.com. "We are getting things ready for a great baseball season and our members are looking forward to our Player Payback Bonuses, as well as Dime Lines, all season long."

Going in to this weekend, MySportsbook.com's favorites to win the World Series are the New York Yankees at 7-2 and last year’s winners the Chicago White Sox at 9-2.

"These betting lines are ripe for the picking," Dalton added, "baseball fans know that the season is long and many factors, including players staying healthy, will affect these Future odds as the baseball season progresses. Betting on your favorite team in the beginning of the season could prove quite lucrative. We are seeing examples of this right now in the NCAA College Basketball Tournament with a lucky few that placed pre-season bets on George Mason to win it all. Anything can happen."

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About www.MySportsbook.com
MySportsbook.com is the foremost online sportsbook offering Internet wagering to its worldwide customers. Fully licensed and regulated in St. John’s, Antigua since 1997, MySportsbook.com offers a complete range of online casino games, sports betting lines, poker tournaments and horse racing offtrack betting daily through its portfolio of companies and managed services. With over 7 years of experience, MySportsbook.com has become one of the most respected companies in the gaming industry by providing unparalleled 24/7 customer support and timely payouts. MySportsbook.com is part of the SportingBet PLC group of companies that is publicly-traded on the London Stock Exchange ( LSE ) under the symbol SBT.L. MySportsbook.com provides a secure environment for sports and casino wagering and has been featured in numerous media outlets, including MAXIM Magazine, Cigar Aficionado, and CNN’s Paula Zahn Now among others.