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Astros swarm Padres; bees delay game

Baseball Betting Lines

07/02/2009 - San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wandy Rodriguez threw seven strong innings to help the Houston Astros take a 7-2 win over the San Diego Padres in an unusual finale of a four-game set.

Rodriguez (7-6) gave up just one run on seven hits with two walks and five strikeouts for the Astros, who have won six of their last eight. Geoff Blum hit a three-run home run and drove in four while Lance Berkman scored three times and drove in one in the win.

Scott Hairston and Everth Cabrera each drove a run while Kevin Correia (5-6) was tagged for all six runs on eight hits with three walks and three strikeouts over five innings of action for the Padres, who have dropped six of the last nine games.

What made this game stand out was a delay in the top of the ninth due to a swarm of bees.

With Miguel Tejada at the plate with two outs in the frame, Padres left fielder Kyle Blanks began walking toward the infield as the bees became thick in the air.

The rest of the players soon left the field as the game went into a delay until a beekeeper arrived at the park.

The swarm eventually centered around a ballgirl's jacket on a chair near the stands and fans were evacuated from several sections near the swarm.

When the beekeeper arrived, he sprayed down the jacket and, after a 52-minute delay, the game resumed.

Houston jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Michael Bourn led off with a single and Berkman later drew a walk. A single from Carlos Lee loaded the bases and Blum followed with an RBI single. Hunter Pence then grounded into a fielder's choice that saw Berkman score.

In the third, the Astros made it a 3-0 game as a single from Lee scored Berkman, who had doubled prior to Lee's at-bat.

San Diego had a golden opportunity to score in the third as the team had the bases loaded with no outs. However, Adrian Gonzalez hit into a fielder's choice that saw Correia forced out at home and Kevin Kouzmanoff then hit into a double play.

Houston padded its lead in the fifth as Tejada led off with a single, Berkman later walked and Blum smacked a 2-1 pitch into the left field stands for a 6-0 advantage.

The Padres finally got on the board in the fifth as Cabrera hit a two-out single and Hairston followed with a double to center to score Cabrera.

San Diego had men on first and third with no outs in the eighth, but Kouzmanoff struck out and Blanks hit into a double play to end the inning.

The game then went into a delay due to the bees, but when it resumed Berkman hit an RBI double to left that scored Bourn for a 7-1 lead.

Cabrera hit into a fielder's choice to plate Edgar Gonzalez in the bottom of the ninth.

Game Notes

The Padres welcome the Dodgers to San Diego for a three-game set starting on Friday...Houston begins a three-game series in San Francisco on Friday...The Astros took six of seven against the Padres in the season series...San Diego went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine men on base.


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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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