Phillies avoid sweep, snap Cardinals' eight-game win streak

Baseball Betting Lines

07/22/2010 - St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Placido Polanco's leadoff homer in the 11th inning provided the game-winning run, and the Philadelphia Phillies avoided a four-game sweep at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals with a 2-0 victory.

Polanco, a former Cardinal who finished with three hits on Thursday, crushed his sixth home run of the year and first since May 9 for the Phillies, who had lost six of seven to begin their second of half of the season. Ryan Howard also had three hits, while Jayson Werth added an RBI double in the win.

Cole Hamels was spectacular in the start, allowing just a hit and a walk in eight shutout innings. He faced 25 batters, one over the minimum, and has allowed one run in his last 22 2/3 innings over three starts. Chad Durbin (2- 1) earned the victory, while Brad Lidge recorded his eighth save.

Adam Wainwright extended his scoreless innings streak to 25 after giving up six hits while fanning six in six frames for the Cardinals, who had their eight-game win streak snapped. St. Louis advanced just one runner past first base for the duration of the game and had just three baserunners overall.

With Kyle McClellan (1-3) on to begin the 11th for St. Louis, Polanco hammered a 1-1 pitch into the left field seats to break the scoreless tie.

Two batters later, Trever Miller relieved McClellan and walked Raul Ibanez, which was followed by a Howard single. Fernando Salas came on to pitch to Werth, who sent an RBI double down the left field line for an insurance run.

Lidge pitched around a leadoff walk in the home half to polish off the win.

While Hamels was dominant, the Phillies squandered several chances to push a run across.

Two of the game's first three batters reached base, but Howard grounded into a fielder's choice before Werth struck out to end the threat.

Philadelphia stranded a runner on third in the second and runners on the corners in the fourth, and Wainwright settled down to face the minimum six batters in the fifth and sixth.

Meanwhile, Hamels didn't allow a baserunner until the fifth and faced the minimum 21 batters through the first seven innings. He yielded a two-out walk to Yadier Molina in the eighth, but recovered to strike out Brendan Ryan and keep the game scoreless.

The Phillies nearly scored in the eighth when Shane Victorino doubled with two away and moved to third when Matt Holliday couldn't handle the line drive in left, but Ibanez struck out to maintain the 0-0 tie.

Game Notes

Werth's RBI double was his first hit with runners in scoring position since June 24...The teams split the season series, 4-4...This was the first game Wainwright has started at home this season in which the Cardinals did not win. The team had been 10-0.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

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