Brignac belts two homers as Rays top Yankees

Baseball Betting Lines

07/17/2010 - Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reid Brignac notched his first career multi-homer game, blasting two and driving in a career-high five in the Rays' 10-5 win over the Yankees in the second of three games.

Brignac had just three career home runs in 101 contests before Saturday's outburst. Carlos Pena added a homer among a season-high four hits and drove in three, while Evan Longoria went 2-for-4 and scored three times, as Tampa Bay spoiled the 64th annual Old-Timers' Day at Yankee Stadium.

Jeff Niemann (8-2) was the beneficiary of the run support after allowing four runs, six hits and four walks while fanning six in 6 1/3 frames. He moved to 5-0 in nine road starts this season, as the Rays won for the ninth time in 11 games.

Mark Teixeira and Jorge Posada both homered, while Brett Gardner hit a two-run single for the Yankees, who had won nine of their previous 10.

A.J. Burnett (7-8) lasted just two-plus innings before leaving with lacerations on his throwing hand, and gave up four runs and four hits in defeat.

The Rays got to Burnett in the opening inning, as Longoria singled with two away and scored on Pena's double to right.

Tampa Bay mimicked that method of scoring in the second. After the first two batters were retired, Jason Bartlett kept the inning alive when he was hit by a pitch. Brignac subsequently launched a 1-0 pitch into the right-field seats for a 3-0 lead.

The Yankees answered with two runs in the home half. Robinson Cano led off with a double, and one-out walks to Curtis Granderson and Francisco Cervelli preceded Gardner's two-run single, which made it a one-run contest.

Burnett, though, didn't escape the third, when he hit Longoria with a pitch before uncorking a wild pitch and allowing Pena to smack an RBI single. The Yankees' starter was pulled with an injury, and Dustin Moseley was able to escape without further damage.

Moseley was not able to get through the fifth unscathed, however, as Tampa Bay tacked on four more runs.

Matt Joyce drew a leadoff walk, and John Jaso followed with a single, placing runners on the corners. B.J. Upton's sacrifice fly extended the lead to 5-2, and Bartlett singled Jaso to second. Brignac, again with a 1-0 count, launched another offering into the right-field seats for a six-run margin.

Teixeira's solo blast in the fifth pulled New York to within 8-3, but Jaso restored the six-run lead for Tampa Bay with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Posada added a homer for the Yanks in the home sixth, and Pena's leadoff blast in the eighth gave the visitors a 10-4 advantage.

Alex Rodriguez's RBI double in the ninth accounted for the final margin.

Game Notes

The Rays improved their MLB-best road record to 29-15...Tampa Bay leads the season series, 4-3...Moseley finished with three innings pitched, giving up four runs on five hits and three walks...Burnett fell to 12-6 lifetime against the Rays...Pena notched at least four hits for the fifth time in his career. He accomplished the feat for the first time since May 8, 2007...Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter went just 1-for-5 and is batting 7-for-41 (.171) since July 3.

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Matt Kenseth And Kevin Harvick Favorites To Take NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship

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MySportsbook.com will offer comprehensive Nascar betting lines on every race remaining on the Nextel Cup series including driver match-ups, props and odds to win each race. For a complete list of NASCAR odds, please visit www.MySportsbook.com.

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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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