Nolasco lifts Marlins to series win over Pirates

Baseball Betting Lines

07/05/2009 - Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ricky Nolasco was spectacular on the mound, tossing eight innings of three-hit ball to lead the Florida Marlins in a 5-0 shutout of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the rubber match of a three-game series at Land Shark Stadium.

Nolasco (6-6) fanned a season-high 12 batters and walked two to win his fourth consecutive start for the Marlins, who finished a six-game homestand with a 5-1 mark. In his six starts since a stint in Triple-A, the righty has allowed just seven runs over 41 frames.

Jeremy Hermida went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored for Florida, which has won eight of its last 10 home series against Pittsburgh. John Baker went 2-for-4 with an RBI, double, and run scored. Dan Uggla and Chris Coghlan each drove in a run.

The Marlins were without shortstop Hanley Ramirez, who was scratched from Sunday's lineup due to a tight right hip flexor.

Ross Ohlendorf (7-7) lasted five frames, giving up five runs on nine hits with three strikeouts and one walk to take the loss for the Pirates, who have lost two in a row and four of their last five overall.

Andrew McCutchen, who had a pair of hits, and Garrett Jones accounted for the only three Pittsburgh hits in the tilt.

The Marlins drew first blood with a pair of runs in the second inning. Hermida tripled to center and Cody Ross was hit by a pitch to put men on the corners. Baker then reached on a fielder's choice, which knocked in Hermida. Wes Helms singled to load the bases with nobody out. Nolasco hit into a double play, but it drove in Ross.

Hermida's two-out, RBI single in the third extended Florida's margin to three. Jorge Cantu doubled to left and crossed the plate on Hermida's hit up the middle.

Florida continued to pile up the runs in the fourth, plating two more to make it a 5-0 game. Baker and Helms started the frame with back-to-back singles and Nolasco moved the runners up a base with a sacrifice bunt. Coghlan knocked in Baker with a single to center, and Uggla hit an RBI bloop single two batters later.

Pittsburgh put a man on second with two outs in the third and fourth, but failed to capitalize on both occasions.

Leo Nunez pitched a scoreless ninth for the Marlins to secure the victory.

Game Notes

Pittsburgh was without second baseman Freddy Sanchez (lower back) on Sunday...Florida signed free agent pitcher Brendan Donnelly and placed pitcher Chris Leroux on the 15-day disabled list on Sunday...The Marlins begin a seven-game road trip with a three-game series with San Francisco, starting Monday. The Pirates head to Houston for a three-game set with the Astros, beginning Monday.

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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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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.

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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