Rangers use long ball to nip Halladay, Blue Jays

Baseball Betting Lines

04/21/2009 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz each hit two-run homers as the Texas Rangers edged the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-4, in the opener of a three-game set at Rogers Centre.

Marlon Byrd chipped in with a 2-for-4 effort, including a double and a run scored for the Rangers, who were coming off a 6-5 win against Kansas City on Sunday. Texas has won three of five overall.

Brandon McCarthy (2-0) earned the win following a strong six-inning start. The right-hander allowed three runs on six hits while striking out two and walking a pair. The Rangers bullpen gave up only one unearned run in three innings with Frank Francisco getting his second save of the season.

Aaron Hill had a double and solo homer for Toronto, which had won four of five coming into the contest. Alex Rios, Vernon Wells and Adam Lind each had an RBI apiece in defeat. Lyle Overbay went 2-for-2 with a double and a pair of walks for the Blue Jays.

Roy Halladay (3-1) was tagged with the loss after going eight innings. The former Cy Young Award winner was touched for five runs on eight hits. He fanned nine without issuing a walk.

Home-plate umpire Kerwin Danley was taken off the field on a stretcher after Hank Blalock's broken bat hit him in the head with one out in the sixth inning. After being attended to by stadium medical personnel and carted off the field while strapped to a backboard, second base umpire Hunter Wendelstedt took over behind the plate.

With the Blue Jays trailing 3-2 in the fifth, Hill's one-out solo homer to left deadlocked things.

Then after Josh Hamilton was retired on a ground out to start the top of the sixth, Danley took the brunt of a Blalock broken bat off the side of his head, resulting in a 10-minute delay.

Texas then reclaimed the lead in the seventh. Jarrod Saltalamacchia lined a double to right, and two batters later Kinsler belted an 0-1 cutter over the right-field wall, putting the Rangers up 5-3.

Lind's run-scoring single off C.J. Wilson in the eighth brought home Rios to make it a one-run game. Francisco was then summoned from the bullpen and served up a single to Scott Rolen and a walk to Overbay to load the bases, but the Rangers reliever settled down to retire the next two batters to avoid further damage.

Toronto got a one-out double from Hill in the ninth, but was unable to plate a run after Rios grounded out and Wells popped out to end the game.

The Rangers drew first blood in the second when Byrd doubled to lead off the inning, then came around to score when Cruz lined an 0-1 fastball over the left-field fence to give Texas a 2-0 lead.

Toronto came back to even things in the third. Travis Snider doubled to start the frame and Marco Scutaro walked. Hill then flied out with Snider taking third. Rios followed with an RBI double to center and Wells' sacrifice fly made it a 2-2 game.

A Chris Davis run-scoring single in the fourth allowed Blalock to cross the plate, putting the Rangers back in front.

Game Notes

Texas split its eight games with the Blue Jays last season and is 9-9 in its last 18 matchups against them...It was announced earlier Tuesday that Rangers right-handed pitcher Kris Benson will miss his scheduled start versus Toronto on Wednesday due to right elbow tendinitis and be replaced by lefty Matt Harrison. Benson will start on Saturday at Baltimore...Toronto finished 2- for-10 with runners in scoring position, while Texas was 3-for-6.

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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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