Blake powers Indians past Rangers

Baseball Betting Lines

06/03/2008 - Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Casey Blake tied career highs with two home runs and seven runs batted in, as he helped the Cleveland Indians win a slugfest, 13-9, over Texas in the opener of a four-game set.

Blake finished with three hits, while Ben Francisco went 2-for-5 with a two- run homer and David Dellucci added two hits and a two-run blast of his own. Jhonny Peralta also had three hits, including a double, for the Indians, who snapped a two-game losing streak and had scored 13 runs in their past four games combined.

Starter Aaron Laffey lasted five innings and gave up eight runs on 11 hits for Cleveland, which lost two of three to Texas in late May. Masa Kobayashi (3-2) picked up the win by throwing 1 2/3 frames and allowing just one run.

Josh Hamilton slugged a two-run homer, while Marlon Byrd added a grand slam for the Rangers, who put together 15 hits but lost their second consecutive game. Ian Kinsler and Michael Young each added three hits for Texas.

Doug Mathis struggled in his start for the Rangers, as he also gave up eight runs, on 12 hits in just 3 2/3 innings. But Eddie Guardado (0-1) took the loss after surrendering one run in the seventh inning.

After the Rangers trimmed their deficit to a run late in the game, Dellucci gave Cleveland some breathing room in the eighth. He hit the Indians' fourth and final homer, a two-run shot that just cleared the center field wall. Later in the frame, Joaquin Benoit had control issues and issued three straight free passes with two outs before walking Francisco to force in a run and push Cleveland's lead to 13-9.

Rafael Perez worked a scoreless bottom of the eighth, and Joe Borowski set the Rangers down in order in the ninth to close out the game.

After a scoreless first inning, the game came to life in the second when Dellucci hit a lead-off double and Blake slammed a two-run shot to right- center field for a 2-0 Indians lead.

A Jarrod Saltalamacchia single in the home half of the inning plated Chris Shelton, who had doubled in the prior at-bat, to get the Rangers back within one.

Blake, though, answered in the next frame with another two-run homer with two outs. Dellucci grounded into a double play with two runners on base, leaving Ryan Garko on third. Blake came up and smacked the ball to left field for a 4-1 Cleveland edge.

Shin-Soo Choo followed with a single and came around on an Asdrubal Cabrera double for a four-run Indians lead.

But in the bottom half, the Rangers came back with a two-run homer off the hot bat of Hamilton, who increased his home run total to 16.

Though, just as Texas had gotten its deficit down to 5-3, Cleveland expanded its lead once more. A walk to Victor Martinez, and singles from Garko and Peralta left the bases loaded with one out.

Dellucci then struck out, but that only set the stage for Blake, and the third baseman again delivered by roping a double to right. It cleared the bases, gave Blake seven total RBI, and pushed Cleveland's advantage to 8-3.

The next two half-innings went quietly, without a run scored, but in the bottom of the fifth the Rangers knotted the game on a big blast.

Kinsler led off with a double and Young plated him with a single. Hamilton then singled and Bradley walked to load the bases with one out. Laffey got David Murphy to pop out, but Byrd slugged a first-pitch fastball over the right-center field wall for an 8-8 score.

The back-and-forth game continued in the seventh. Guardado came out of the Texas bullpen and got two outs, but allowed a single to Cabrera. He was lifted in favor of Benoit, who Francisco greeted with a two-run homer to left.

Shelton drove in Murphy with a two-out single in the bottom half to bring the Rangers within 10-9.

Game Notes

Cleveland had 16 hits and, despite the offensive output, still left 11 runners on base...Blake has six homers this season...It was Byrd's fourth career grand slam...Mathis threw 100 pitches...Monday, the Rangers placed pitcher Vicente Padilla on Major League Baseball's bereavement list to tend to a family emergency in Nicaragua...Hamilton was named the American League Player of the Month for May on Monday...Cleveland optioned infielder Michael Aubrey to Triple-A Buffalo and recalled pitcher Tom Mastny from Buffalo on Monday. The Indians announced that Jake Westbrook has been scratched from his scheduled start Tuesday and will likely return to the disabled list. An official roster move will be made Tuesday.

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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.

NFL Betting Lines

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