Tuesday Rundown: Olympics, Veepstakes and Sports Betting

A battle of American League division leaders is on tap for Tuesday night as the Tampa Bay Rays play host to the Los Angeles Angels. Here's your Daily Sports Roundup . . .

Last chance to bet on Vice Presidential choices…

Several media outlets are reporting that Barack Obama will announce his running mate by Thursday and John McCain will follow up by next Monday. It's time to make your choice (political betting odds).

Mitt Romney remains the GOP frontrunner according to the Las Vegas odds for Vice President. Romeny is 5/6, followed by Tim Pawlenty at 3/1 and Charlie Crist at 7/1.

Anticipating an immediate announcement, many sportsbooks have taken down odds on the Democratic side. However, BetUs Sportsbook has a state-by-state breakdown on each candidate's odds of winning.

Olympic betting odds…

While Michael Phelps and Alicia Sacramone are the darlings of Madison Avenue, Olympic bettors had mixed results recently. Sacramone is the foxio of Roxio, a digital software company that just started Photoshow.

Offshore oddsmakers are reporting big steam bets on kayaker Katalin Kovacs of Hungary, US track athlete Lolo Jones, American pole vaulter Jenn Stuczynski, American gymnast Nastia Liukin (the darling of announcer Tim Daggett, and table tennis sensation David Zhuang.

Henry Cejudo bettors won big at the online casinos as the American won the gold in freestyle wrestling at 55 kilos. Bulgaria's Jordan Jovtchev was a betting favorite who came up short in gymnastics.  

Event of the day . . .

The Angels are running away with the AL West title this season - unless the Rangers can find some consistency Los Angeles will likely be the only team in that division that ends up above the .500 mark. The Rays find themselves a little more challenged from the likes of the Red Sox (and potentially the Yankees) in the AL East race, but they've already managed to set the franchise mark for victories in a single season.

James Shields (10-7, 3.75 ERA) will get the ball for Tampa Bay on Tuesday night, and the Rays have picked up the win in each of his last three outings. In fact, Tampa Bay is 8-2 over Shields' last 10 trips to the mound. The righthander has faced Los Angeles twice already this season, getting knocked around for earned six runs in a loss on June 10, and tossing nine shutout, one-hit innings in a win back on May 9.

Ervin Santana (13-5, 3.49 ERA) will start for the Angels. The righthander is coming off a no-decision versus the Mariners in which he gave up three earned runs on seven hits over 6 1-3 innings of work. Santana had won each of his previous two starts, and Los Angeles is 6-4 over his past 10 outings. Santana faced the Rays back on May 11, giving up five earned runs on nine hits over 5 2-3 innings to get tagged with the loss.

Non-event of the day . . .

The Royals and the Indians will continue their fight for fourth place in the AL Central when they hook up in Cleveland on Tuesday night. Kansas City is scheduled to send Luke Hochevar (6-11, 5.44 ERA) to the mound in that contest, while Cleveland will counter with Anthony Reyes (1-1, 2.19 ERA). Reyes was picked up from the Cardinals to provide a stop-gap for the Tribe's rotation through the end of their wasted season.

Also on the schedule . . .

Daisuke Matsuzaka (14-2, 2.74 ERA) will look to pitch the Red Sox past the Orioles on the road on Tuesday. Other American League matchups on the schedule: the Yankees at Toronto, Detroit at Texas, Oakland at Minnesota, and Seattle at the White Sox.

There's also a full slate of National League games on Tuesday, highlighted by the Brian Moehler (8-4, 3.97 ERA) / Ben Sheets (11-6, 3.00 ERA) duel in the Astros/Brewers matchup. Also on the Senior Circuit schedule: Washington at Philadelphia, Atlanta at the Mets, Cincinnati at the Cubs, Pittsburgh at St. Louis, Colorado at the Dodgers, and Florida at San Francisco.

News from the wire . . .

Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson hurt his shoulder on Sunday night but is expected to be ready to play when Week 1 of the regular season rolls around . . . Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson is expected to make his preseason debut for the team on Friday; he's been out with a groin injury . . .Tigers reliever Todd Jones went right back on the disabled list on Sunday . . . the Nationals traded reliever Luis Ayala to the Mets.

Peek at the future . . .

It'll be Jered Weaver (10-9, 4.47 ERA) taking on Matt Garza (10-7, 3.63 ERA) in the Angels/Rays game on Wednesday night . . . the USA men's hoops teams will compete against the Australians in the quarterfinal round of the Olympic tournament early on Wednesday morning; the semifinals of the tourney will then take place on Friday morning, with the gold medal game set to be played at 2:30am ET on August 24.