Rangers try to deal spiraling Tigers a seventh straight loss

Baseball Betting Lines

07/20/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tommy Hunter hopes to deliver Texas' first series win in Detroit since 2007 this evening, when the Rangers play the middle test of their three-game set with the Tigers at Comerica Park.

Texas had lost 11 straight in Detroit before Nelson Cruz's two-run homer in the 14th inning propelled the Rangers to an 8-6 win in Monday's opener. Ian Kinsler provided a two-run homer and three RBI, while Josh Hamilton had four hits and drove in a run as the Rangers pounded out 19 hits to win for the fourth time in five contests overall and the 13th time in their last 16 on the road.

With another victory tonight, the Rangers would claim their first series win in Detroit since taking two of three from the Tigers in June of 2007.

Enrique Gonzalez (0-1) walked Hamilton with one out in the 14th before Cruz sent a 1-2 offering to the opposite field that landed barely over the wall in right for his 12th homer of the season. Cruz, who had three hits and four RBI, has gone 12-for-23 with 10 runs driven in over his last five games.

"It was a good feeling, especially since we had a hard time driving in a run after the seventh inning," Cruz said. "It was good to get that."

Matt Harrison (2-1) allowed two hits over four innings to get the win and Neftali Feliz recorded his 25th save, tying Kansas City's Joakim Soria for the American League lead.

Miguel Cabrera homered twice and drove in three runs for Detroit, but the Tigers dropped their season-high sixth straight game. Detroit also lost third baseman Brandon Inge, who suffered a non-displaced fracture of the fifth metacarpal bone after getting hit with a pitch in the left hand during the game. He will miss the next 4-to-6 weeks.

"When you're going good you get them in and when you're not you don't," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We had some opportunities to do that, but we didn't do that [Monday]. It's part of struggling."

The Rangers hope to keep rolling tonight as Hunter tries to go 7-0 on the year. The 24-year-old beat Boston on Thursday, holding the Red Sox to a pair of runs and five hits in 6 2/3 innings to become the first Texas starter to begin a season 6-0 since Esteban Loaiza in 1999.

Hunter, who beat the Tigers the only other time he faced them, has held opponents to two earned runs or fewer in seven of his eight outings and has pitched to a 2.39 earned run average on the season.

Detroit, meanwhile, recalled righty Armando Galarraga to make the start tonight. Galarraga, who nearly threw a perfect game earlier in the season, was optioned to Triple-A Toledo earlier in the month because the Tigers did not have the need for a fifth starter until now. He is 3-2 with a 4.45 ERA on the year.

Galarraga has faced the Rangers three times and is 2-1 with a 3.60 ERA against them.

Texas has won three of its five matchups with the Tigers this season after losing seven of the nine meetings a year ago.

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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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