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09/04/2010 - Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Augie Ojeda's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth delivered the winning run as Arizona downed Houston, 4-3, to start a three-game set.
Adam LaRoche went 2-for-4 with two runs batted in and Gerardo Parra added two hits and a run scored for the Diamondbacks, who have won four in a row and seven of their last eight games while outscoring their opponents 58-28 in the process.
Aaron Heilman (5-5) earned the win with a scoreless top of the eighth and Juan Gutierrez worked a scoreless ninth to preserve the win and earn his seventh save.
Wilton Lopez (5-1) suffered the loss after yielding the deciding run on one hit over one inning of work for the Astros, who had a three-game win streak snuffed out.
Ryan Roberts doubled off Lopez to open the decisive frame and advanced to third base on a Gerardo Parra groundout. Ojeda, pinch-hitting for Heilman, then lifted a fly ball deep enough to center field to chase home Roberts with the tie-breaking run which also ended Lopez's time on the hill.
Houston had evened the game at three when Angel Sanchez grounded into a double play with runners at the corners and nobody out in the seventh.
Stephen Drew singled to start the home first, advanced after a walk to Chris Young and scored when LaRoche followed with a double. However, Houston starter Brett Myers worked his way out of further trouble by getting Mark Reynolds to foul out, Miguel Montero to fly out to shallow right field and Brandon Allen to pop up.
Sanchez opened the fourth with a base hit and scored to tie the game on Jeff Keppinger's one-out single to left. Myers doubled to right with one out in the fifth and scored on a Sanchez two-out single to right to put the Astros in the lead for the first time.
Arizona reclaimed the lead in the fifth on consecutive run-scoring singles by Young and LaRoche.
Daniel Hudson delivered another fine start for Arizona but was not involved in the decision after allowing two runs on seven hits with one walk and six strikeouts.
Myers was charged with three runs on seven hits with three walks and four strikeouts in his six of innings, as he stretched his streak of lasting at least six frames in each of his 28 turns this season.
Game Notes
LaRoche's two RBI give him 89 on the season, the most for a D-Backs first baseman in a single season, surpassing Tony Clark's 87 in 2005...Drew went 1- for-3 and has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games during which he has 18 hits...Hudson has gone at least six innings in each of his seven starts since being acquired by the D-Backs on July 30...Arizona selected the contract of veteran left-hand pitcher Mike Hampton from Triple-A Reno prior to the game...Houston has lost eight of its last nine meetings with Arizona...Astros outfielder Hunter Pence went 2-for-4 and has a team-leading 43 multi-hit games.
<< French solid as Mariners down Indians
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Luke French tossed seven one-hit frames and
Franklin Gutierrez drove in the only run as Seattle blanked Cleveland in a 1-0
final at Safeco Field.
French (4-4) produced a second straight winning turn on
<< Nadal, Murray cruise into third round in New York
Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Rafael Nadal and fourth-
seeded Andy Murray were a pair of easy straight-set winners on Friday in
second round action at the 2010 U.S. Open.
Nadal needed 2 hours, 44 minutes to p
<< Rhymes helps Tigers beat Royals in extras
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Will Rhymes' two-run triple in the 11th
highlighted the four-run inning, and the Detroit Tigers defeated the Kansas
City Royals, 9-5, in the first of three games at Kauffman Stadium.
Ryan Raburn adde
<< Hardy, Span help Twins rally past Rangers
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - J.J. Hardy and Denard Span had run-scoring
singles in the seventh inning to put Minnesota in front, and the Twins held on
for a 4-3 win over the Texas Rangers in the opener of a three-game series.
The bat
A's blank struggling Angels behind Gonzalez >>
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cliff Pennington and Kevin Kouzmanoff each
homered during a six-run seventh, as the Oakland Athletics dominated the
Angels, 8-0, in the opener of a three-game series.
Gio Gonzalez (13-8) tossed si
Rockies extend San Diego's losing streak to eight >>
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Giambi and Troy Tulowitzki each hit a
two-run homer, as the Colorado Rockies dealt San Diego an eighth consecutive
defeat, 4-3, in the opener of a three-game series.
Aaron Cook (5-8), who was acti
Dodge faces win-or-else season at North Texas >>
DENTON, Texas (AP) -Todd Dodge is no longer the hot shot high school coach hired to energize the North Texas football program.After 31 losses in three years, he's just trying to hang on to his job and avoid becoming another case study in why it's so
Kovalchuk pact approved; NHL-NHLPA adopt rules for long-term deals >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ilya Kovalchuk will finally join the New Jersey
Devils after his re-submitted contract was officially and finally approved by
the National Hockey League just before 3 a.m. (et) Saturday morning.
The re-worked
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?
I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.
There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.
Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.
For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.
A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.
The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.
Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.
So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.
Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.
“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.
Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.
“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.
It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.
Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.
The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.
“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.
“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”
Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.
The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.
“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”
Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?
“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.
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