Red Sox blow lead, but top Mariners in 13 innings

Baseball Betting Lines

07/23/2010 - Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eric Patterson's two-run double in the 13th inning lifted the Red Sox to a wild 8-6 win over the Seattle Mariners to open a four-game series.

Boston's John Lackey came within four outs of a no-hitter, but the Mariners eventually rallied for five runs in the ninth to force extra innings.

Bill Hall and J.D. Drew each hit two-run homers, while Marco Scutaro added a solo shot as the Red Sox snapped a two-game skid.

Seattle loaded the bases with one out in the 12th inning, but came up empty as Jose Lopez fouled out to first and Milton Bradley popped out to former Mariner Adrian Beltre at third.

Kevin Youkilis led off the 13th with an infield single. Beltre nearly homered in the next at-bat, but yanked the ball barely foul down the left field line. He ended up popping out. Drew flied out to left, but Mike Cameron walked and Patterson doubled to the gap in left-center off Garrett Olson (0-3) to provide the Red Sox with the lead.

"Runner in scoring position, you're just trying to get a base hit, you're not trying to do too much," Patterson said. "(Olson) threw me a couple breaking balls. I was just able to stay on the last one and found some grass in the outfield."

Hideki Okajima (3-2) pitched a pair of innings for the win and Ramon Ramirez recorded his second save.

Franklin Gutierrez, the hero in a 2-1, 11-inning win over the White Sox on Wednesday, belted a two-run homer in the ninth inning off Manny Delcarmen, but the Mariners lost for the seventh time in nine contests.

Ryan Rowland-Smith permitted eight hits and five runs over six innings in the start for the Mariners.

Lackey gave up two hits, an unearned run, walked one and fanned six batters. He retired 16 batters in a row before Josh Bard looped a base hit to right- center field to break up the no-hit bid. Jack Wilson singled to right field, but Ichiro Suzuki lined out to end the inning, keeping Boston up 6-1.

"You think about (the no-hitter) a little bit, you obviously know it's going on, but it's not something that you're really focused on, you just want to win the game." Lackey said. "We won the game, that makes things a lot better for sure, but it's definitely one of the weirdest no-decisions that I've had."

Delcarmen had trouble closing out the game in the ninth, an inning in which the Red Sox committed a pair of errors. Chone Figgins singled to center and Gutierrez homered to left. Lopez walked, and Bradley then grounded a ball up the middle off of Scutaro's glove to put two runners on base.

Jonathan Papelbon entered, but couldn't stop the bleeding. He fanned Justin Smoak, but Casey Kotchman stroked an RBI double down the right field line. Bard walked to load the bases and Wilson grounded a ball up the middle that should have turned into a game-ending double-play. Scutaro flipped to Hall for the out at second, but the throw to first got by Youkilis, allowing two runs to score. Suzuki was intentionally walked, but Figgins was caught looking at a called third strike to send the game into extra innings.

"It comes down to that 12th inning, bases loaded, one out, meat of the order up, and we don't get it done," Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said. "But, to be down facing Delcarmen, Papelbon and to score five runs, that shows a lot of character."

Suzuki crashed into the wall in right field to rob David Ortiz of a home run in the first inning.

Seattle produced a run in the bottom portion. Bradley walked, stole second and went to third on Smoak's groundout. With two down, Bradley scored on a passed ball by Kevin Cash.

Cameron doubled leading off the third and Hall followed with a homer to left field. Scutaro singled with one out, went to second on a wild pitch and came home on a Ortiz two-out base hit to right.

After hitting Wilson with a pitch to open the third, Lackey retired the ensuing 16 batters. Meanwhile, Boston added to its lead in the sixth as Drew homered to right field with Beltre on base.

Scutaro homered to left off Brian Sweeney with one out in the seventh for a 6-1 margin.

Game Notes

Earlier Thursday, the Mariners traded minor league infielder Jack Hannahan to the Red Sox for a player to be named later or cash considerations...Prior to Thursday, the Mariners had never scored five or more runs in the ninth inning to tie or win a game...It was the fourth blown save of the year for Papelbon...Beltre, who signed with the Red Sox in the offseason after spending five years in Seattle, went 1-for-6...Youkilis had three hits.

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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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