Reds subdue Brewers with 19-hit barrage

Baseball Betting Lines

07/28/2010 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scott Rolen was one of three Cincinnati players with four hits and drove in three runs as the Reds walloped the Brewers, 12-4, snapping Milwaukee's five-game winning streak.

Brandon Phillips went 4-for-6 with two RBI and two runs scored out of the lead-off spot, while Joey Votto also had four hits, drove in one and scored three times. Rolen singled four times and Ramon Hernandez knocked in three runs for Cincinnati, which bounced back from a 3-2 loss on Monday to beat the Brewers for the seventh time in the last eight tries.

Orlando Cabrera had three hits, an RBI and scored twice for the Reds, who moved into a virtual tie with St. Louis for first place in the NL Central.

While the Reds tied a season-high with 19 hits, they couldn't get Edinson Volquez a victory because the right-hander was lifted after 3 2/3 innings. In his third start of the year, Volquez allowed six hits and four runs and threw 95 pitches, 54 for strikes.

Logan Ondrusek (2-0) lasted 2 1/3 innings to record the victory.

Yovani Gallardo (9-5) clubbed a two-run homer, but was blasted on the mound for a season-high 10 hits along with six runs -- five earned -- over 2 2/3 frames. Rickie Weeks homered for a third straight game and for the 22nd time this year.

Brewers manager Ken Macha didn't want to waste a reliever in the ninth inning, so infielder Joe Inglett pitched the final frame and retired the side in order.

Rolen, in just his second game back recovering from a right hamstring injury, snapped an 0-for-16 slump as part of a two-run first inning. Phillips doubled to start the game, but was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple. Cabrera doubled and scored on Votto's base hit to right field. After a base hit by Rolen and flyout from Jonny Gomes, Votto scored on a wild pitch when Jay Bruce swung at a pitch in the dirt.

Weeks scored on a Ryan Braun groundout in the bottom of the first, but the Reds struck for three more in the second - an RBI double from Hernandez and run-scoring hits from Phillips and Rolen.

Gallardo homered following a Jonathan Lucroy single in the bottom of the second, but the Brewers committed two errors in the third, leading to Phillips' RBI single. Bruce walked with the bases full in the fourth for a 7-3 cushion.

Weeks homered to left in the fourth, but Cincinnati tacked on three in the sixth - an RBI single from Rolen and two-run double from Hernandez off Chris Capuano.

Phillips doubled leading off the seventh against David Riske and scored on Cabrera's base hit. Rolen added a sacrifice fly to account for the final margin.

Game Notes

The Brewers went 1-for-9 with men in scoring position and left 11 runners on base...The Brewers have homered in 16 straight games, the longest stretch for the team since July 1-24, 2008 when they did it in a franchise-record 20 straight games.

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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.