Mets wrap up disastrous road trip at Chavez Ravine

Baseball Betting Lines

07/25/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - R.A. Dickey targets his first win in six starts this afternoon when the New York Mets wrap up what has been a disastrous road trip with the finale of their four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.

The Mets have managed just two wins thus far on their season-high 11-game West Coast swing and are 3-11 in their last 14 overall to fall into third place in the National League East 7 1/2-games off the pace of the first place Atlanta Braves.

Offensively the Mets have been abysmal, hitting just .194 on the trek with 23 runs, while being shut out three times.

New York lost in dramatic fashion on Saturday, as James Loney hit the game- winning home run in the bottom of the 13th to lift Los Angeles to a 3-2 win.

George Sherrill (1-1) tossed a scoreless top half of the frame to earn the win for the Dodgers, who used nine pitchers to win for a third time in their last four tries.

Oliver Perez (0-4), who worked out of a jam in the 12th, suffered the loss after yielding the decisive run in one inning of work

Matt Kemp flied out to open the 13th before Loney blasted a 1-0 offering over the wall in right-center field for his seventh long ball of the year.

"It felt pretty good when I hit it," said Loney about his game-winner. "I said to myself if that doesn't go out, something's wrong. If you're going to play a long game like that, it always feels good when you win."

After becoming the first starter in team history to win his first six decisions, Dickey has lost his last four. He lost his third straight start on Tuesday in Arizona, surrendering three runs and seven hits in seven innings to fall to 6-4 on the year, while raising his earned run average to a still respectable 2.73.

This will be his first start against the Dodgers.

Los Angeles will counter with 22-year-old left-hander Clayton Kershaw, who is 9-5 with a 3.15 ERA. Kershaw did not get a decision on Tuesday against San Francisco, as he allowed four runs (two earned) and four hits in six innings before being ejected in his team's wild 7-5 loss.

Kershaw has faced the Mets twice and is 1-09 with a 3.72 ERA in those starts.

The Mets have lost 11 of 16 games in Hollywood since the 2007 season, but have won four of six from the Dodgers this season.

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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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