Late rallies and a shared golf lead leave bettors stung in a week of bad beats

Anyone who has wagered on sports knows it is risky to count winnings before a game ends. Over the past week, several results showed why, especially in baseball, where a game is not decided until all 27 outs are recorded.

The most dramatic reversal came Saturday night in Kansas City. The Los Angeles Angels were -167 money-line favorites against the Royals, one of the weakest teams in Major League Baseball. Midway through the seventh inning, the Angels led 8-2, and MLB figures gave them a 98.5% chance of winning.

The Royals then came to life, scoring three runs in the bottom of the seventh and three more in the bottom of the eighth to make it 8-8. Mike Trout's RBI single put the Angels back in front in the ninth, but Kansas City scored twice in the bottom half and won 10-9.

Wednesday night brought trouble for bettors who took the under in two Texas games. In Arlington, the total was set at nine runs, and the Rangers and Angels were tied 1-1 entering the seventh. Texas scored three runs in that inning and two more in the bottom of the eighth, taking a 6-1 lead into the ninth. Shohei Ohtani then hit his 21st home run with a runner aboard to make it 6-3. That was the final score, and it landed exactly on the total, so under bets were refunded as a push.

The under looked safer still in Houston, where Washington's Josiah Gray faced the Astros' Framber Valdez with a posted total of 7 1/2 runs. Houston led 4-1 through eight innings and had a solid closer in Ryan Pressly. The ninth began to unravel when the leadoff batter reached on a throwing error by Alex Bregman. Corey Dickerson followed with an RBI double, and a run-scoring fielder's choice made it 4-3. Dominic Smith's triple tied the game at 4-4 and sent it to the bottom of the ninth. Houston ended up winning on an error.

The U.S. Open in Los Angeles produced a different kind of disappointment. Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele each shot an eight-under 62 in Thursday's first round, a record-setting score, and shared the lead going into Friday.

Bettors who backed either player to lead after the first round did win, but not the full amount. Fowler, who later finished the tournament in a tie for fifth, was 50/1 for the first-round lead. Schauffele, who tied for 10th, was 30/1.

Most sportsbooks apply a "dead heat" rule in such cases and divide the payout by the number of players tied, here two. A $10 bet on Fowler returned $250 rather than $500, and a $10 bet on Schauffele returned $150 rather than $300.

It was still a profitable result for those bettors. Even so, it is unusual for a player to shoot a record-low round at a major championship and not hold the outright lead.