A's, Tigers wrap four-game set in Detroit

Baseball Betting Lines

08/13/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Right-hander Chad Durbin returns to the starting rotation for the Detroit Tigers tonight when they host the Oakland Athletics in the finale of a four-game set at Comerica Park.

Durbin, a 29-year-old who was drafted in the third round by the Kansas City Royals in 1996, has made 15 starts and 12 appearances out of the bullpen this season. He was exclusively used in relief between mid-June and early August, then lasted 4 1/3 innings against Tampa Bay in a start on August 8.

He's pitched twice against the Athletics in relief during 2007, combining to toss 2 1/3 scoreless innings while allowing one hit and striking out three. In his career, Durbin is 2-2 in eight appearances -- six starts -- against Oakland and has allowed 25 earned runs in 33 innings.

Slumping right-hander Chad Gaudin goes for the Athletics in search of his first win since July 5.

The 24-year-old New Orleans native was 8-3 after a 3-2 defeat of Seattle, but has since gone 0-5 in six starts since, allowing at least four earned runs in each outing.

He was touched for eight hits and seven runs in five innings en route to an 8-6 loss in Texas in his last start on Tuesday.

This will be Gaudin's first lifetime start against the Tigers. He's made five career relief appearances against them and is 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA in seven innings, allowing four hits and a run.

On Sunday, Magglio Ordonez blasted two home runs off Dallas Braden in an eight-run second inning as Detroit downed Oakland, 11-6.

Ordonez became just the second player in Tigers history to go deep twice in the same inning, joining the legendary Al Kaline, who belted two homers in the sixth inning of an April 17, 1955 affair against Kansas City. Ordonez is a gaudy 8-for-12 in the series with three homers and eight RBI.

Brandon Inge finished 1-for-3 with two RBI for the Tigers, who won their second straight and leapfrogged over Cleveland to take first place in the AL Central by one-half game. The Indians fell to the New York Yankees, 5-3, Sunday.

Nate Robertson (7-9) allowed four runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings to earn the win.

Marco Scutaro was 3-for-4 with a two-run homer and a pair of run-scoring doubles for the Athletics, who have lost three of their last five games. Mark Ellis and Dan Johnson added an RBI apiece.

Braden (1-7) was rocked for eight runs on seven hits in just 1 2/3 innings en route to the loss.

These teams have split six encounters so far in 2007. Detroit won five of nine regular-season game against Oakland last season, then swept the A's in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series in October.

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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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