Mets take rubber contest of series with Nats

Baseball Betting Lines

09/08/2010 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Evans' pinch-hit double in the seventh inning drove in the winning run as New York upended Washington, 3-2, to capture the rubber match of a three-game set.

Luis Hernandez went 2-for-4 with an RBI and Carlos Beltran knocked in the other run for the Mets, who won a series deciding game on the road for the first in eight tries time this season.

R.A. Dickey (10-6) gave up a pair of runs on five hits while striking out one over six innings to grab the win, while four different relievers combined to blank the Nationals over the last three frames, including Hisanori Takahashi, who earned his fifth save by retiring the side in order in the ninth.

Livan Hernandez (9-11) was charged with the loss after allowing three runs on six hits while walking two and fanning four over 6 1/3 innings for the Nats, who have lost 10 of their last 13 rubber games.

Wilson Ramos' first major league home run accounted for the Washington offense.

The Mets broke through first with a pair of runs in the third. Dickey singled with one out, moved to second on an Angel Pagan single and scored when Hernandez followed with a double. Beltran then brought Pagan home with a sacrifice fly.

Washington got the game tied in the fifth when Michael Morse singled with one out and scored when Ramos belted his long ball to straightaway center with two down.

The Nats loaded the bases in the sixth with one out on two singles and a hit batter, but Roger Bernadina fouled out to third and Morse grounded out to end the frame.

Josh Thole then led off the decisive seventh with a walk and moved to second base on a Ruben Tejada sacrifice bunt that also brought an end to Hernandez's outing with left-handed swinging pinch-hitter Lucas Duda looming on deck.

Washington skipper Jim Riggleman countered with southpaw Sean Burnett and Mets manager Jerry Manuel then called on the righty-swinging Evans, who made the strategy pay off with a broken bat double down the first base line by that put New York back in front to stay.

The Nationals had just one base runner over the final three innings.

Game Notes

New York finished its 10-game road trip with four wins...The Mets open a 10- game homestand Friday against Philadelphia...Dickey beat the Nats for the first time in five games, including four starts...The Mets are 59-4 when leading after seven innings...Washington catcher Ivan Rodriguez was scratched from the lineup shortly before game time as he was feeling ill...Hernandez is 12-15 in 36 career starts against the Mets and has lost six of his last eight decisions to them...Washington is 11-6-2 in home series since April 23...The Nats are 10-11 in rubber games this season.

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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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