White Sox shoot for another win over Mariners

Baseball Betting Lines

07/21/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A trip to the West Coast and a couple of matchups with a struggling Seattle squad seems to have gotten the Chicago White Sox back on track. The current American League Central leaders will try to remain unbeaten against the Mariners this season when the two teams conclude a three-game series tonight at Safeco Field.

Chicago entered this series off three consecutive defeats to rival Minnesota, which closed the Twins within 1 1/2 games of the White Sox in the division standings, but has been able to rebound at the expense of the hapless Mariners. After coming through with a 6-1 victory in the series opener, Chicago received excellent pitching for a second straight night in Tuesday's 4-0 triumph over Seattle.

John Danks (10-7) limited the Mariners' anemic offense to two hits and struck out eight over the first 7 2/3 innings to notch his 10th win of the season, with J.J. Putz and Bobby Jenks recording the final five outs to complete the shutout.

"I felt good," Danks said afterward. "It was a good game. We scored some runs and as a staff were able to shut them out."

Alexei Ramirez paced the White Sox offensively by going 3-for-4 with a solo homer, while Alex Rios went 2-for-3 and added an RBI single to help Chicago post its 11th win in the past 14 games.

With Minnesota and Detroit both losing on Tuesday, the White Sox now hold a 3 1/2-game advantage on the Twins and Tigers in the AL Central race.

Doug Fister (3-6) was saddled with the loss for Seattle, now a woeful 3-14 for the month of July, after giving up three runs over the first six innings.

"When you're having trouble scoring runs, John Danks is not the guy you want to see," said Seattle manager Don Wakamatsu following the loss.

Chicago has now taken all five meetings with Seattle this season, having won three straight matchups between the teams at U.S. Cellular Field back in April. With a win tonight, the White Sox can produce their first three-game road sweep of the Mariners since June 24-26, 1994, when Seattle still played its games at the Kingdome.

Tonight's finale will feature an intriguing pitching matchup, with the Mariners set to send out staff ace Felix Hernandez against resurgent Chicago righty Gavin Floyd.

While Seattle as a team has clearly failed to meet expectations in 2010, Hernandez hasn't disappointed despite entering this evening's tilt with a rather ordinary 7-6 record. The 2009 AL Cy Young Award runner-up's 2.90 earned run average is fifth-best in the league, and he ranks second among Junior Circuit hurlers with 134 strikeouts while throwing an AL-best 145 2/3 innings.

Hernandez has worked seven innings or more in each of his last seven outings and notched five complete games during that span, and had posted four straight winning decisions prior to dropping a 3-2 verdict to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Friday. The All-Star right-hander allowed all three Anaheim runs and 10 hits in going the distance once again.

During his six-start unbeaten streak, Hernandez had registered a sensational 1.39 ERA and limited opposing hitters to a .177 average while fanning 52 batters in 5 1/3 innings.

Hernandez is just 2-2 with a 3.74 over seven lifetime starts against Chicago, but did not allow a run over a combined 15 innings in two encounters with the White Sox last season.

Floyd also had an impressive unbeaten stretch come to an end in his initial start out of the All-Star break, when the former first-round pick surrendered four runs -- only one of which was earned -- in a five-inning stint at Minnesota this past Friday. He had won three consecutive assignments to finish out the first half.

The 27-year-old has bounced back nicely from a poor first two months of the season. Floyd had a substandard 6.64 ERA as of June 2, but has lowered that number to 4.10 by yielding one run or fewer in six of his last eight starts.

Floyd didn't fare that well in a showdown with the Mariners in Chicago back on April 23, permitting five runs in 6 1/3 innings while receiving a no-decision, and is an unwanted 1-4 with a 7.41 ERA in nine career games (seven starts) against Seattle. He's also lost in all three of his previous starts at Safeco Field and pitched to a brutal 9.49 ERA during those contests.

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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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