Boston and Buchholz spoil Samuel's Orioles debut

Baseball Betting Lines

06/04/2010 - Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Clay Buchholz threw his second career shutout to help the Boston Red Sox rout the Orioles, 11-0, in Juan Samuel's managerial debut on the Baltimore bench.

Buchholz (8-3), who threw only his third career complete game and first since 2008, set a new career-high in wins with the five-hitter. Ironically, both of his whitewashes have come against Baltimore, although the first one was a no- hitter in his second career start on September 1, 2007.

The 25-year-old walked only one batter and struck out two to move into a tie atop the AL's win list with Tampa Bay's David Price. It was the fifth consecutive start in which Buchholz earned a win and Boston's fifth overall in six games.

Kevin Youkilis, Adrian Beltre and Marco Scutaro all homered for the Red Sox, who snapped a four-game losing streak to the Orioles.

Chris Tillman (0-1) was unable to get out of the second inning for Baltimore, which was playing its first game since the firing of manager Dave Trembley. Trembley, who ended his O's tenure with a 187-283 record, guided the Orioles to a league-worst 15-39 record at the time of his dismissal.

Trembley was replaced with Samuel, who is making his managerial debut after a 16-year playing career that ended in 1998. Samuel was unable to change the results in the short-term for Baltimore, which had just one runner reach third in its ninth consecutive defeat.

Tillman, meanwhile, gave up four runs, five hits and two walks in just 1 1/3 frames.

The Red Sox dominated from start to finish, scoring three runs in the first to get going.

Tillman quickly allowed Boston to load the bases with nobody out, allowing a leadoff single to Scutaro before issuing walks to Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz.

Baltimore nearly got out of it with minimal damage, as Youkilis struck out and was followed by a Victor Martinez RBI groundout. J.D. Drew, though, came up and hammered a two-run double to center for a 3-0 advantage.

The O's put two runners on in the home half but couldn't score, and Pedroia added an RBI single in the second for a 4-0 lead, prompting Baltimore to bring in Mark Hendrickson out of the bullpen.

In the fourth, Bill Hall reached on a passed ball third strike leading off, and Scutaro followed with a single. Hendrickson retired the next two hitters, but Youkilis stepped up and belted a three-run homer to left for a 7-0 cushion. The lead grew to eight on Beltre's leadoff shot in the fifth off Matt Albers.

Scutaro's solo shot off Frank Mata in the eighth made it 9-0. Beltre's RBI double and Darnell McDonald's RBI groundout against Alberto Castillo in the ninth accounted for the final score.

Game Notes

Buchholz has won nine straight road starts, dating back to August 19, 2009...Red Sox starters have gone at least six innings in six straight games...The Orioles still lead the season series, 4-3...Boston has won six straight road games overall...Samuel was previously Baltimore's third base coach. Triple-A Norfolk manager Gary Allenson was promoted to take over Samuel's position on an interim basis.

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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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