Molina's slam sends St.Louis past Brewers
Baseball Betting Lines
09/06/2010 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Yadier Molina's second career grand slam capped a six-run eighth inning to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to an 8-6 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the opener of a three-game set.
Albert Pujols drove in a run and scored twice while Matt Holliday and Pedro Feliz each had an RBI and a run scored for the Cardinals, who have won three of their last four.
Jake Westbrook went six innings in the start and was charged with two runs on five hits with a pair of walks and strikeouts. Mitchell Boggs (2-2) got the win for tossing 1 1/3 innings while giving up a run.
"It was a great win," said St. Louis manager Tony La Russa. "They are a tough club to play here because of all that power. We got touched up at the end, but everybody got the outs that they needed."
Corey Hart hit a two-run homer and a solo shot while Rickie Weeks added a solo home run for the Brewers, who have lost six of their last seven. Yovani Gallardo threw seven innings and was charged with two runs on four hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Zach Braddock (1-2) was tagged with the loss.
"Gallardo threw the ball very well and gave us the innings that we needed," said Milwaukee manager Ken Macha. "It was a big night for Corey with the two home runs. We just didn't get the bullpen help we needed."
With the score tied in the eighth, the Cardinals surged ahead with a six-run frame.
Braddock started the frame on the mound and got the first out, but then hit Jon Jay with a pitch. Jeremy Jeffress then took over on the hill and Pujols reached base on a Casey McGehee error. Holliday then put his team on top with a single that scored Jay.
After Colby Rasmus was issued an intentional walk to load the bases, Todd Coffey took the mound and promptly gave up an RBI single to Feliz. Molina followed with a blast over the left field wall for an 8-2 lead.
The Brewers cut into the deficit in the eighth. With men on first and third and one out, McGehee singled up the middle to score Hart. After Lorenzo Cain struck out, Alcides Escobar doubled to left to score Prince Fielder and make it an 8-4 game. On the play, Holliday gunned the ball to Brendan Ryan, who took the relay and threw home to nail McGehee for the final out of the inning.
Ryan Franklin gave up a leadoff double to Jonathan Lucroy in the ninth, but then retired the next two batters. Hart, though, cut the deficit in half when he crushed a pitch well over the center-field wall. Ryan Braun then worked a walk to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Fielder. Franklin, though, got Fielder to groundout to first base to end the game.
The Cardinals posted a 1-0 lead in the first inning as Skip Schumaker led off with a double, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt from Jay and crossed the plate on a sac fly by Pujols.
The Brewers tied the game in the third on Weeks' solo shot over the right- field wall.
Milwaukee then went ahead in the fifth on a two-out, solo shot from Hart, but the Cardinals answered in the sixth on a wild pitch from Gallardo that scored Pujols.
Game Notes
St. Louis now leads the season-series with Milwaukee, 7-6...Hart now has 27 home runs on the season...Milwaukee stranded seven men on base...Pujols has 97 RBI on the season...Kyle Lohse takes the mound for St. Louis on Tuesday and will be opposed by Chris Narveson for Milwaukee...Molina's other grand slam came this season on April 5 against Cincinnati.
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
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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