Iwamura and Duke help Pirates down D'Backs

Baseball Betting Lines

04/10/2010 - Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Akinori Iwamura went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer and Zach Duke threw seven solid innings, as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 6-3, in the middle contest of a three-game series.

Duke (2-0) gave up two runs on four hits and two walks, and struck out two for the Pirates, who snapped a two-game slide. The left-hander improved upon his first start of the season, when he gave up two runs in five innings against the Dodgers on Monday.

Jeff Clement also homered for Pittsburgh, while Andy LaRoche was 2-for-4 and scored once.

Arizona's Dan Haren (1-1) had limited the Padres to a run in seven innings in his first start of the season, but was hit for six runs (five earned) in 6 2/3 innings Saturday. Haren allowed nine hits and walked two, but also struck out nine.

Mark Reynolds hit a two-run homer and finished 2-for-4 for the Diamondbacks, who had won their last two.

Staring at a four-run deficit, the Diamondbacks threatened in the bottom of the eighth. Facing Jack Taschner, Kelly Johnson doubled and pinch-hitter Rusty Ryal walked before the Pirates brought in Brendan Donnelly to pitch.

Donnelly walked Conor Jackson to fill the bases, and Tony Abreu flied out to center to bring in Johnson. The other two runners advanced into scoring position after Andrew McCutchen threw the ball into open space in the infield.

However, Donnelly struck out Justin Upton before Javier Lopez struck out Adam LaRoche to end the threat. Octavio Dotel then worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save of the season.

The Pirates got to Haren in the first inning, which Iwamura led off with a single. He went to second on a McCutchen groundout before scoring on Lastings Milledge's single to center.

Clement began the second with a homer to right, and the Pirates tacked on three more in the fourth.

With a runner on second and two down, Ronny Cedeno doubled to left to plate the run. Iwamura followed with a two-run blast to right, making it a 5-0 game.

Duke kept Arizona off the scoreboard in efficient fashion, facing the minimum through three innings. He also didn't allow a runner past first base through the first six innings.

Pittsburgh made it 6-0 in the top of the seventh, when McCutchen scored from third on Johnson's fielding error. Haren didn't make it out of the inning, as Jordan Norberto came in to get the final out.

In the bottom half, Adam LaRoche doubled before Reynolds belted a homer to left with one out. Duke, though, retired the next two batters to complete his outing.

Game Notes

Arizona catcher Miguel Montero left the game after suffering an apparent knee injury running to first in the bottom of the second...Cedeno, McCutchen and Garrett Jones each had a stolen base for Pittsburgh.

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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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