Gonzo's cycle, HR in ninth lifts Rockies over Cubs

Baseball Betting Lines

07/31/2010 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Gonzalez's lead-off home run in the ninth inning gave him the cycle and the Colorado Rockies a 6-5 win over the Chicago Cubs in the second of a three-game set.

Gonzalez led off the bottom of the inning against Sean Marshall (6-3) and destroyed the first pitch he faced into the upper deck of right field to give the Rockies their third straight win.

Colorado was coming off Friday's 17-2 win which saw the team have 11 consecutive two-out hits in the eighth and score 12 runs in the frame for the blowout win.

Gonzalez singled in the first inning, tripled and scored a run in the third inning and doubled in the fifth while adding a sacrifice fly in the seventh before homering to win the game. It was the sixth cycle in team history.

Miguel Olivo clubbed a three-run home run the win. Jason Hammel went 7 1/3 innings in the start and was charged with four runs on six hits with five strikeouts. Huston Street (2-2) got the win for throwing a perfect ninth.

Derrek Lee hit a three-run home run while Alfonso Soriano and Geovany Soto each drove in a run for the Cubs, who have dropped their last four games. Tom Gorzelanny was tagged for five runs on nine hits with two walks and five strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings.

Colorado jumped on top in the second inning as Melvin Mora singled, Ryan Spilborghs followed with a walk and Olivo, two batters later, crushed a pitch over the center field wall for a 3-0 lead.

The Rockies made it a 4-0 game in the third when Gonzalez hit a one-out triple and came home when Mora later plunked a single to left.

The Cubs got two back in the fifth to make it a two-run game. Marlon Byrd led off with a single and came home when Soriano doubled to left. Soriano made it to third on the play and Soto followed with a sacrifice fly.

Colorado added a run in the seventh as back-to-back singles from Dexter Fowler and Clint Barmes put runners on the corners and Gonzalez followed with a sac fly to center for a 5-2 lead.

Chicago, though, tied the game in the eighth. Mike Fontenot singled to start off the inning and Tyler Colvin later singled. Rafael Betancourt then took the mound and struck out Starlin Castro for the second out of the frame, but Lee cracked a pitch over the center field wall to make it a 5-5 contest.

Game Notes

The Cubs traded pitcher Ted Lilly, infielder Ryan Theriot and cash consideration to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for infielder Blake DeWitt and minor league pitchers Kyle Smit and Brett Wallach...Colorado finished July with a mark of 13-13 while Chicago went 12-14...Each team has won twice in the season series...No Cubs player had more than one hit in the game...Jorge De La Rosa takes the mound for Colorado in the finale on Sunday and will be opposed by Carlos Silva.

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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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