Angels roll on with rout of Mariners

Baseball Betting Lines

06/05/2010 - Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ervin Santana allowed one run in six solid innings and Torii Hunter continued his torrid stretch with three hits and three RBI, as the Angels remained hot with an 11-2 rout of the Seattle Mariners.

Santana (6-3) won his fifth consecutive start after scattering seven hits and three walks while fanning two for Los Angeles, which has won four straight and seven of eight to move two games above .500 (30-28) for the first time all season.

Hunter, meanwhile, has driven in at least one run in four consecutive games and has nine RBI in that stretch. Maicer Izturis and Howie Kendrick each added two hits, two RBI and two runs scored in the victory.

Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-3 and scored his 1,000th career run for the Mariners, who have lost two straight after a three-game win streak. Ryan Rowland-Smith, starting for the first time since May 17, gave up just one run in five innings, but Garrett Olson (0-1) allowed three runs while recording just one out to receive the loss.

Olson began on the mound for Seattle in the sixth with the game tied, 1-1, and immediately ran into trouble.

Hunter began the frame with a double and scored the go-ahead run two batters later on a Mike Napoli single. Napoli moved to second on a wild pitch, prompting Olson to intentionally walk Juan Rivera.

Shawn Kelley relieved Olson, but the Angels' offense kept producing. Bobby Wilson walked to load the bases with one out, and Erick Aybar made it 3-1 with an RBI groundout. With runners now on second and third, Izturis plated both with a single to left.

Kendrick was then hit by a pitch, and Bobby Abreu walked to reload the bases with two away. Hunter and Hideki Matsui followed with back-to-back walks to force in a pair of runs for a 7-1 advantage. Napoli, the 12th batter of the inning, finally ended the rally with a groundout to second.

Los Angeles poured it on in the seventh with four runs. With the bases loaded and one out, Kendrick drove in two with a single to center, and after an Abreu walk reloaded the bases, Hunter plated two more with a double to right for an 11-1 game.

Chone Figgins' RBI single in the ninth for the M's accounted for the final margin.

Abreu's sacrifice fly in the third inning gave the Angels the early lead, but Suzuki doubled, moved to third on a bunt single and scored on Franklin Gutierrez's groundout to help Seattle tie the score in the fifth.

Game Notes

The Angels played without manager Mike Scioscia, who left the team for two games to attend his daughter's high school graduation. Bench coach Ron Roenicke served as the interim manager, and the Angels improved to 6-0 with him at the helm...Los Angeles leads the season series, 6-2...Seattle's Doug Fister was scratched from his scheduled start Saturday with a fatigued shoulder...Mariners third baseman Jose Lopez had an 11-game hit streak snapped.

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Horse Betting

(This is an update of a sportsbook for the May 4th issue of ESPN The Magazine).

The Kentucky Derby's post-position draw happened on Wednesday. And, as is always the case, shortly afterwards, a buzz raced around Churchill Downs. It was a low rumble at first, nothing that the squares in the mint julep crowd pick up right away. But by the time the sun set over the twin spires, the chatter was impossible to ignore. Everyone -- sharps, trainers, owners -- was talking about one thing: the wise guy horse, the pre-draw long shot us mopes didn't have on our radar until it was too late.

"You think you're hearing the scoop," says handicapper Lane Gold. "Then you get to the window, the odds are short, and you missed it."

Recognizing a wise-guy horse early is as hard as picking a Derby bonnet. That's because handicappers don't like hype (see ya, I Want Revenge). They want Thoroughbreds who look good losing prep races like the Santa Anita Derby. They eye horses who ate up the field after starting wide or made an easy transition from synthetic tracks to dirt. They look for ponies who showed muscle gain race to race and those who ran hard after several weeks' rest.

"A wise guy," says John Avello, a bookmaker at Wynn Las Vegas, "looks for a horse who can improve."

When I first wrote Horse Betting for The Mag, which I turned in a three weeks before Wednesday's draw, I predicted these three horses had wise guy potential:

CHOCOLATE CANDY (15-1 in mid-April, currently 20-1 according to Avello): His second-place finish at Santa Anita, following a seven-week layoff, proved two things: He can run after resting, and -- by losing a high-profile prep race -- he wouldn't be overhyped.

DESERT PARTY (15-1; 15-1): He was upset in the UAE Derby by a horse he had beaten twice. The public remembers his loss, but the wise guys his wins.

PIONEEROF THE NILE (8-1; 4-1): The big favorite at Santa Anita struggled to win, so he initially got less hype than Quality Road and I Want Revenge.

You may have noticed that the odds on Pioneerof the Nile have been cut in half, from 8-1 to 4-1. Which means the wise guys took a shine to him long before the post-position draw. But, to be honest, this is one of those years with four elite horses getting everyone's attention, squares and sharps alike.

"You're not gonna get a lot of chatter about a horse that isn't in that group, which includes Pioneer, I Want Revenge, Dunkirk and Friesan Fire," Avello told me Wednesday. "We don't have a group of horses behind those top four who look like real legit contenders."

Come Derby week, the final two elements in picking a wise guy horse are how he's working out and what gate he's coming out of.

(By the way, picking a Preakness favorite is a whole different bale of hay, partially based on how horses finish in the Derby. You can see my analysis of who has the best shot at Pimlico on Insider Sunday morning.)

Well, early in the week I Want Revenge, Pioneerof the Nile and Friesan Fire were working out better than anyone. Some thought Friesan Fire, currently 6-1, might have run too fast, burning a five-furlong run in :57 4/5. "When you are running that fast you have the sense that it took something out of him," says Gold. "The Derby is longer than any horse has run, and if they need that extra surge you worry they won't have it because they burned it in the workout."

But, Gold points out, Friesan Fire's trainer is Larry Jones, Two years ago his horse Hard Spun did a five-eighths workout in :57 3/5 and then went on to finish second, behind Street Sense, in the Derby. "Every trainer has different methods," says Gold. "And clearly he knows what he's doing."

Now, as for starting position, Gold says to remember this: Churchill Downs traditionally has 14 starting gates. For the Derby, it brings out auxiliary gates and between the original 14th gate and the new 15th gate, there is a little more space than there is between gates 1-14. "That 15 position will give you a precious second or two to sort out what's happening to your inside," says Gold. "Sixteen is also okay because you can follow the horse in front of you."

Dunkirk, one of the race favorites, is coming out of gate 15. In 16 is Baffert's Pioneerof the Nile. I Want Revenge drew 13, where Smarty Jones won from in 2004, and Friesan Fire picked the sixth position. "He doesn't have a lot of speed to the inside of him," says Gold. "So he will get a clear shot to be near the front."

All the jibber-jabber means this: Pioneerof the Nile has leapfrogged from 8-1 to being the second favorite, along with Dunkirk, behind I Want Revenge. Meanwhile, Friesan Fire, with a good trainer, a strong week of training and a decent post position, is still at 6-1. "By Saturday, it's possible he could go from fourth to the favorite," says Gold.

In other words, meet Friesan Fire, your 2009 wise guy horse.

"Now," says Avello, "it's time for action."

To visit this horse betting site go to MySportsbook.com for all your horse racing betting needs.