Diamondbacks shoot for third straight win in opener with Padres

Baseball Betting Lines

05/16/2011 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks will try to match their longest winning streak of the season tonight when they open a brief two-game series with the San Diego Padres at Chase Field.

The Diamondbacks have won their last two outings since a five-game losing streak, a rut in which they lost each game by a single run. However, they turned the tables to snap the skid on Saturday with a 1-0 win over the Dodgers, then won the series with yesterday's 4-1 triumph.

Xavier Nady and Ryan Roberts hit back-to-back homers in the second inning to back Ian Kennedy, who went six innings and allowed one run on four hits with eight strikeouts.

"Today was a battle throwing strikes. My command wasn't as good and my curveball wasn't as good early, but I had good defense behind me," Kennedy said of his performance.

Arizona is hoping to win a season-high three straight for the first time since April 17-20, but may need starter Armando Galarraga to end his own losing streak to do so.

The right-hander is winless in his last four outings since claiming a victory in each of his first three starts of the season. He is 0-3 with a 5.03 earned run average over his current winless stretch and is coming off a loss in San Francisco on Wednesday. Galarraga yielded four runs on eight hits and three walks over 5 1/3 innings of work.

Galarraga, who is 3-3 with a 5.50 ERA on the season in seven starts, faced the Padres for the first time in his career on May 6, but the 29-year-old did not factor into the decision of Arizona's 4-3 loss in extra innings. Galarraga lasted a season-low 4 1/3 innings, getting charged with three runs -- two earned -- on three hits and six walks.

Like Galarraga, Padres starter Clayton Richard will also be looking for his first victory in some time. The left-hander hasn't won since his season debut on April 2 and picked up his fourth losing start in a row in Milwaukee on Tuesday. Despite getting a fair number of ground balls, Richard yielded season highs of eight runs (seven earned) and 10 hits over just 3 1/3 innings.

"It's just unfortunate when you feel like you're making pitches and they're doing what you want them to do," said Richard on San Diego's website.

The 27-year-old is 1-4 on the season with a 4.79 ERA in eight starts and has never lost to the D-Backs, going 2-0 in three starts despite a 5.63 ERA.

Richard will hope for similar success to what Mat Latos had in Sunday's rubber match with the Colorado Rockies. Latos was able to pick up his first win of the season by giving up just two runs -- one earned -- on four hits and three walks over 5 2/3 innings of an 8-2 triumph, San Diego's second straight and third in four games.

"I think that is a huge weight off of his shoulders," said San Diego manager Bud Black about Latos, a 14-game winner last year who was winless in 11 straight starts dating back to last year.

"But it's just one game and he needs to build off of this."

Ryan Ludwick's three-run homer helped back Latos and Jason Bartlett added a two-run double during a five-run seventh inning.

The Padres took two of three from the Diamondbacks at home back in early May.

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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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