27 Up, 27 Down

Not that it means much, but the second round of group matches in Euro 2008 saw two 2-1s, a 1-1 and a 3-1 in the first four matches, very similar to this year's second round results. Group C last time around saw a draw and a 4-1 whooping, which wouldn't be a surprise this time around. I actually think that at 2.38, Italy are value to beat Croatia, but presumably there is a good reason why they are this price. An expert on international football I am not, but Italy were impressive against Spain, and I don't think Croatia's win over the Republic of Ireland was anything special. With a family name of Cassini though, I am a little biased anyway when it comes to Italy.

It's actually quite surprising how few Euro matches are Any Unquoted winners. Only seven teams out of the last 108 (54 matches going back to 1996) group games, have scored 4 or more, which makes the 4.9 on Spain v Republic of Ireland look a little tight.

I was hoping the highlight of last night's baseball would be another win by the Los Angeles Dodgers, but it turned out to be the perfect game thrown by Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants, just the 22nd perfect game in 140 years of MLB history, and the first in 130 years of Giants baseball (including their days in New York as the Gothams before becoming the Giants). A rare event indeed, although this is the fifth since 2009, so there's been something of a glut of late! There should have been one more. A blown call by an umpire in 2010 on the 27th batter in a game, cost pitcher Armando Gallargo of the Detroit Tigers his place in history. 

After the game, [Jim] Joyce acknowledged his mistake: "I just cost that kid a perfect game. I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay."

For the record, the Dodgers lost another close one last night to the Angels (1-2) after leading 1-0. The losing sequence moves to one. My accountant will be relieved to hear that there are no qualifiers from tonight's truncated schedule.