MLB keeping vigilant when it comes to sports gambling: Rob Manfred

TORONTO — Major League Baseball has not been immune to sports betting invading its modern game, with two pitchers still on nondisciplinary leave as part of a gambling investigation.But in light of the NBA’s gambling scandal this week, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Saturday that it continues to be “vigilant” on issues surrounding sports betting.“Obviously, our No.1 priority is to protect the integrity of the game,” Manfred said before Game 2 of the World Series at Rogers Centre.

“We think we have great systems in place that allow us to do that.In addition, we’ve worked really hard to provide resources to players to make sure that they are comfortable and have an outlet when they have a problem with respect to issues related to sports betting.”MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark said Friday that the safety and well-being of players was “paramount,” with many being threatened by gamblers.The league’s investigation into Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis L.

Ortiz, meanwhile, remains “ongoing,” Manfred said Saturday, as it tries to determine exactly what happened.The root of the investigation is related to pitches thrown by Ortiz that raised “suspicious betting” during games in June.“The most important thing that we can do is make sure we have systems in place that give us access to data, which puts you in a position to determine if there’s something aberrational going on,” Manfred said.

“When you get that, you need to conduct a thorough investigation, make sure you understand exactly what caused that aberration and then you need to discipline them.”The night before crushing a historic grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series, Addison Barger slept on his teammate’s couch.OK, so it was a pullout couch, in Davis Schneider’s hotel room that overlooks the field at Rogers Centre.But it worked so well, with Barger crushing the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history, that he returned to ...