Angels continue home series with Tigers

Baseball Betting Lines

04/22/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will try to win back-to- back games for the first time this season, as they resume a three-game series tonight with the Detroit Tigers at Angel Stadium.

Having won back-to-back American League West titles, the Angels are off to a 5-8 start. They snapped a three-game slide in Tuesday's opener by posting a 4-3 victory.

Gary Matthews Jr. doubled in the winning run in the eighth inning, Torii Hunter clubbed a solo homer and Erick Aybar also drove in a run for the Angels. Bobby Abreu had two hits and scored a run in the victory.

Jered Weaver tossed seven solid innings for the Halos, allowing three runs on seven hits and recording six strikeouts, but came away with a no-decision. Jose Arredondo (1-0) got the win after hurling a scoreless eighth. Brian Fuentes overcame some wildness in the ninth to notch his third save.

Curtis Granderson belted two homers and Carlos Guillen collected three hits for the Tigers, who lost for just the third time in their last nine outings.

Brandon Lyon (1-2) was saddled with the loss after giving up a run on two hits in two innings of work. Armando Galarraga started for Detroit and allowed three runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and three walks over five full frames.

The Tigers turn to Justin Verlander tonight in hopes that the 2006 AL Rookie of the Year can get on track.

The right-hander is 0-2 on the season with a 7.88 earned run average over three starts and lost his last start on Friday versus Seattle. He allowed six runs (5 earned) on eight hits over 7 1/3 innings, though he did strike out eight batters for a second straight start.

Verlander, who has dropped six of his last seven decisions dating back to last season, is 0-2 with a 4.34 ERA in three career starts versus the Angels, who counter with Joe Saunders tonight.

An All-Star last season, Saunders is 2-1 with a 2.18 ERA so far in 2009. The southpaw dropped a decision to Boston on April 11, but bounced back with seven innings of one-run ball in batting Seattle on Thursday. Saunders held the Mariners to three hits and a walk while fanning three.

The 27-year-old is 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA in four career starts versus the Tigers.

The Angels were 6-3 versus Detroit last year and are 17-9 in the series over the last three-plus seasons.

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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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