Lester wins in courageous comeback

Baseball Betting Lines

07/24/2007 - Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jon Lester began his courageous comeback from cancer by allowing five hits and two runs over six innings, and Manny Ramirez went 2-for-4 with a two-run double as Boston topped Cleveland, 6-2, in the opener of a four-game set at Jacobs Field.

Lester (1-0) struck out six and walked three in his first major-league start since a win over the Angels last August 23. He set down the final eight batters he faced and needed just 96 pitches to earn the win.

The 23-year-old was 7-2 with a 4.76 ERA in 15 starts with the Red Sox after being promoted from Pawtucket in June, 2006. The No. 1 prospect in the organization and Boston's first pick of the 2002 draft, Lester became the first Red Sox rookie lefty in club history to win his first five decisions.

However, his charmed season was cut short after that start against the Angels, when he was placed on the disabled list due to a sore back, an injury which led to a September diagnosis of a treatable form of anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

Lester underwent treatment and was then brought along slowly by Boston, which sent him to Single-A on a rehab assignment to begin the season. He then hit a minor bump in the road on May 2 when he experienced muscle cramping in his left forearm. After recovering from that injury, Lester was reinstated from the disabled list and optioned to Pawtucket, where he made 14 starts, before taking the place of the struggling Julian Tavarez in the rotation on Monday.

Coco Crisp finished 4-for-5 with three runs scored for the Red Sox, who have won four in a row. Dustin Pedroia had three hits and scored a run and Kevin Youkilis picked up a pair of hits, an RBI and a run scored.

Tribe hurler Jake Westbrook (1-6) was tagged for 10 hits and five runs with four walks and one strikeout in six innings. Grady Sizemore hit a two-run homer for the Indians, who have dropped two of three.

Sizemore's blast in the third made it 5-2, and Lester finally ran into trouble in the fourth. Ryan Garko led off with a double then Jhonny Peralta walked. After Franklin Gutierrez fanned, Kelly Shoppach walked to load the bases. Josh Barfield grounded into a force at home, then Lester blew a pitch by Sizemore to end the inning.

Cleveland would not threaten from that point with Lester on the hill.

Boston had runners on first and second with one out in the sixth and failed to score against Jensen Lewis, but tacked on a run in the ninth when Pedroia drove in Crisp with a single to restore their four-run lead at 6-2.

Manny Delcarmen, who was called upon to get the last out of the eighth, set the Indians down in order in the bottom of the frame to pick up his first major league save and preserve Lester's comeback victory.

The Sox gave Lester all the run support he needed early, loading the bases with none out in the first on singles by Crisp and Pedroia and a walk to Youkilis. Ramirez belted a double down the left-field line to score a pair, and J.D. Drew followed with an RBI single. Mike Lowell then grounded into a double play, but a run scored for a 4-0 lead.

Youkilis dropped a two-out single into right to score Crisp in the second.

Game Notes

Red Sox first baseman/designated hitter David Ortiz did not play, and remains day-to-day with a left shoulder strain suffered on Friday...The Sox are 11-5 at the Jake since the 2002 season...Westbrook has not won in his last seven starts, the longest stretch of his career...It was Crisp's third straight game with three or more hits...Tuesday's probables are Daisuke Matsuzaka for Boston and C.C. Sabathia for Cleveland...Garko extended his hit streak to 16 games, currently the longest in the American League...Sizemore leads the Indians with 18 home runs...Julio Lugo singled in the sixth inning for Boston to extend his hitting streak to 13 games.

Hankokki Baseball Betting News

<< Billingsley goes the distance as Dodgers down Astros
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chad Billingsley's night on the mound epitomized his season, throwing an almost flawless complete game in the Dodgers' 10-2 pounding of Houston in the opening contest of a three-game set at Minu

<< Valentin's RBI single in the 12th leads Reds over Brewers
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pinch-hitter Javier Valentin's run-scoring single in the 12th inning gave the Cincinnati Reds a 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in the opener of a four-game set at Great American Ball Park.

<< Ginepri upset in Indy
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Germany's Michael Berrer upset seventh- seeded American Robby Ginepri in three sets to advance to the second round at the $575,000 Indianapolis Tennis Championships. Berrer, a quarterfinalist last we

<< Kim shoots 62 to lead U.S. Girls' Junior
Lakewood, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Among other things, Kimberly Kim was worried about losing her focus. "I'll be putting for two minutes and I'll be kind of bored," she said. But there was nothing boring about the 15-year-old Hawaiian's rou

<< Thomas homers twice as Blue Jays top Twins
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Frank Thomas hit a pair of two-run home runs as the Toronto Blue Jays downed the Minnesota Twins, 6-4, in the opener of a three-game set. Thomas, who has 503 career home runs, is now just one home run b

Angels' Colon leaves Monday's game versus Oakland with elbow injury >>
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Angels staff stalwart Bartolo Colon left Monday's game against Oakland with a sore right elbow after yielding four runs in the first inning. The 2005 Cy Young winner, Colon had won five consecutive de

Lester beats cancer, bests Indians >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jon Lester, the plucky 23-year-old Red Sox hurler, completed a courageous comeback from cancer by allowing just five hits and two runs over six innings to earn the win in Boston's 6-2 victory

Yanks remain hot, pound Royals >>
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada each knocked in a pair of runs and Roger Clemens pitched seven solid innings, as the streaking New York Yankees slammed the Kansas City Royals, 9-2, in

Houston's Pence out four-to-six weeks with chip fracture >>
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hunter Pence underwent an MRI Monday that revealed the National League Rookie of the Year candidate has a capsular sprain in his right wrist and a chip fracture in that same wrist. The injuries wi

Holliday, Hawpe homer in eighth to lift Rockies past Padres >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Holliday hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning to tie the game and Brad Hawpe's two-run homer in the same inning put Colorado on top, as the Rockies came from behind to down San Diego, 7-5, in

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.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.