Bombers stay true to their name, use five HRs to crush Jays

Baseball Betting Lines

08/24/2010 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Teixeira, Marcus Thames and Jorge Posada homered off Marc Rzepczynski in a span of four at-bats during the third inning, propelling the New York Yankees to an 11-5 blowout of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Curtis Granderson added a three-run homer in the fifth, and Derek Jeter tacked on a solo shot in the same inning for the Yankees, who won for the sixth time in eight contests. Teixeira and Posada each went 4-for-5 with two RBI. Granderson and Thames had three hits for the Yankees, who tied a season-high with the five home runs as part of their 17-hit attack.

Dustin Moseley (4-2) was charged with five hits and two runs over six innings to win his second straight start.

By taking the middle installment of this three-game series, the Yankees also moved back into first place in the AL East, a half-game ahead of Tampa Bay, which plays the Angels later tonight.

Rzepczynski (1-2) permitted eight hits and six runs over three innings. as the Blue Jays lost for the fifth time in seven games. Vernon Wells and Adam Lind each had two RBI in defeat.

Teixeira singled in Nick Swisher in the opening frame and the Yankees doubled the lead in the second, but should have had more runs in the inning. They had runners at first and third with one out when Austin Kearns grounded a ball back to Rzepczynski, who threw home. Thames collided with catcher John Buck, dislodging the ball from his grasp. However, home plate umpire Mark Wegner ruled Thames never touched the plate. That gave Buck time to recover the ball and tag out Thames, who was trying to scramble back to the base.

Granderson walked to load the bases, and the Yankees made it 2-0 on an RBI fielder's choice from Eduardo Nunez.

Teixeira took a 3-2 pitch from Rzepczynski over the wall in left field with one out in the third. After Robinson Cano walked, Thames went deep to left. Posada was up next and he crushed a pitch to left for a 6-0 margin.

A single by Wells plated Yunel Escobar in the fourth, but the Yankees added four runs in the fifth. Granderson homered to right off Brian Tallet with Thames and Kearns on base; and with two down Jeter cranked his 10th longball of the year, a shot to left, for a 10-1 cushion.

Posada and Buck exchanged RBI singles in the sixth. Buck's bases-loaded hit to center field scored Jose Bautista, but Granderson threw a perfect one-hop strike to Posada to nail Lind at the plate for the final out.

Wells singled in a run in the seventh and then scored when Lind followed with his two-out, two-run double to right-center field.

Game Notes

Swisher fouled a ball off his left knee in the seventh inning and was removed from the game in the middle of his at-bat. Brett Gardner, who celebrated his 27th birthday on Tuesday, came on to pinch-hit and struck out...Yankees manager Joe Girardi announced rookie Ivan Nova will take the place of Javier Vazquez in the rotation this weekend against the White Sox...The Yankees are 15-5 in their last 20 games against left-handed starters...Blue Jays second baseman Aaron Hill went hitless in four at-bats and is mired in an 0-for-20 slump.

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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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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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