Oswalt solid, Polanco and Ibanez fuel offense as Phils blank Nats

Baseball Betting Lines

08/22/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Placido Polanco went 2-for-3 and drove in a pair of runs and Raul Ibanez hit a two-run homer to back seven shutout innings from Roy Oswalt in Philadelphia's 6-0 win over Washington to close out a three-game series.

Oswalt (9-13) won his third consecutive outing, scattering five hits and a walk while fanning eight for the Phillies, who recovered from an 8-1 loss on Saturday to stay in front in the National League Wild Card race while remaining 2 1/2 games back of the East Division-leading Braves.

Scott Olsen (3-6) was touched for four runs on nine hits in a six-inning start for Washington, which went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position to lose for the fourth time in the last six games.

After Oswalt struck out Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman to leave Nyjer Morgan on third in the top of the first inning, the Phillies manufactured a run in the bottom half when Jimmy Rollins led off with a double, moved to third on a groundout and raced home on Polanco's sacrifice fly.

Oswalt stranded a runner on second in each of the next two innings, then singled to begin the home third, advanced on a groundout and scored on Polanco's base hit up the middle.

Washington again squandered a scoring chance in the fourth as Mike Morse and Adam Kennedy both whiffed to leave Roger Bernadina 90 feet away.

Wilson Valdez's bases-loaded single in the sixth scored Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino to double the Phillies' lead.

The sky opened after Oswalt retired his seventh consecutive hitter to end the seventh. When play resumed following a one-hour, 44-minute rain delay, Ibanez took Craig Stammen deep over the right-field wall. Rollins singled ahead of the blast.

Ryan Madson pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, and J.C. Romero did the same in the ninth to finish off Philadelphia 15th shutout of the season, the most for the club since 1967 (17).

Game Notes

The Phillies, winners in eight straight day games, have won eight of their last nine series...Washington is 0-14-2 in its last 16 road series...Olsen has lost his last four starts...Victorino had two doubles in the win...Morgan had two of Washington's five hits...Nationals rookie hurler Stephen Strasburg, who exited Saturday's game with an apparent arm injury, felt no discomfort in going through a normal workout routine ahead of his scheduled MRI exam back in Washington, D.C. on Sunday.

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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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