Eveland, Jays shut down O's

Baseball Betting Lines

04/10/2010 - Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dana Eveland worked 7 1/3 scoreless innings to help the Toronto Blue Jays take a 3-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles in the second of a three-game set.

Eveland (1-0) gave up just five hits and two walks with two strikeouts while Jose Molina went 2-for-3 with two RBI for the Blue Jays, who have won four straight after dropping their season opener.

Jason Frasor worked a scoreless ninth for his third save.

David Hernandez (0-1) worked six innings and was charged with two runs on six hits with four walks and five strikeouts for the Orioles, who have lost four of five to start the season. Julio Lugo went 2-for-3 in the loss.

Toronto got on the board in the fourth inning to take the lead. With two outs, Edwin Encarnacion kept the inning alive with a single and Alex Gonzalez followed with a double. After Travis Snider was intentionally walked, Molina was hit in the left shoulder by a pitch to force home Encarnacion.

Baltimore got its first two runners on base in the bottom of the frame, but Garrett Atkins and Matt Wieters flied out and Nolan Reimold struck out to end the frame.

The Blue Jays padded their lead in the sixth on Molina's two-out RBI single to center scored Encarnacion for a 2-0 game.

After a two-out walk to Lugo in the fifth, Eveland retired the next eight batters he faced before Lugo punched a one-out single in the eighth. Scott Downs then took the mound and induced a double-play from Adam Jones to end the frame.

The Blue Jays tacked on another run in the ninth on Adam Lind's double that brought home Mike McCoy, who walked earlier in the frame, for a 3-0 lead.

Frasor gave up a leadoff walk to Nick Markakis to start the ninth, but then got Miguel Tejada to pop out. Garrett Atkins followed that with a single, but Wieters struck out and Reimold popped out to end the game.

Game Notes

Shaun Marcum takes the mound for Toronto in Sunday's finale while Kevin Millwood will toe the rubber for Baltimore in the hopes of avoiding the sweep...These teams split 18 games last season...Lind finished the game 2- for-5...Toronto stranded 11 men on base while Baltimore left seven...Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts sat out of the game with an abdominal strain.

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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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