Dice-K flirts with no-hitter as Red Sox handle Phillies

Baseball Betting Lines

05/22/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Daisuke Matsuzaka had a no-hitter broken up with two outs in the eighth inning with Juan Castro's flare single to shallow left, and the Red Sox handled Philadelphia, 5-0, in the second installment of a three-game interleague set at Citizens Bank Park.

Matsuzaka (3-1) walked four, struck out five and was pulled after getting the final out of the inning with 112 pitches. It represented his third win in four starts and the Japanese import was backed by several defensive gems in the near no-no.

Dustin Pedroia made a leaping grab in the first on a humpback liner to start a double-play, Matsuzaka snagged a line shot off the bat of Jayson Werth for the final out of the seventh and Adrian Beltre came up with perhaps the most important play with nobody out in the eighth and Raul Ibanez on first.

Carlos Ruiz ripped a ball to the left side, which Beltre got with a diving stab to his left. He doubled off Ibanez at first, but next up was Castro, whose soft looping hit was just out of shortstop Marco Scutaro's reach with the outstretched webbing.

Beltre also did the job at the plate, knocking in two runs. J.D. Drew picked up two hits and an RBI in the win, Boston's fourth in five games.

Kyle Kendrick (2-2) was charged with five runs and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings for the Phillies, who had won six of eight and took the opener to this series Friday, 5-1, against Sox ace John Lackey.

With Matsuzaka's keeping the Phillies off the scoreboard, Boston built a 5-0 lead over the first five innings.

The game's first run came in the fourth, in which David Ortiz reached base on a fielder's choice. He went to third on a double by Beltre, then scored when Jeremy Hermida lofted a sacrifice fly to left field.

Drew's looping single to left scored Scutaro an inning later to kick off a two-out, four-run rally. Ortiz delivered a double to right to score Jacoby Ellsbury in the center fielder's first game back from the disabled list. Beltre capped it with another double, scoring two for a 5-0 affair and ending Kendrick's outing.

From there, the no-hit watch was on as Matsuzaka breezed through the next two innings to reach the fateful eighth. Daniel Bard picked up where Matsuzaka left off with a spotless ninth.

Game Notes

Ellsbury had been sidelined since April 11 with a hairline fracture in four of his left ribs. He was hurt in a collision with Beltre and was batting .333 with four doubles and an RBI in six games prior to the injury. To open up a roster spot, Boston designating outfielder Jonathan Van Every for assignment...The Phillies had to place shortstop Jimmy Rollins back on the disabled list after he re-injured his right calf in Friday's game. He singled with one out in the sixth, then appeared to pull up lame at first base. He was on the DL with the same injury from April 13 to May 17. To take Rollins' spot on the roster, infielder Wilson Valdez was recalled from Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

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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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