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06/20/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Howard is hitting his stride and will try to continue the power surge tonight when the Philadelphia Phillies play the rubber match of their three-game set with the Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field.
Howard had three hits, one of them a long solo homer, and tied a season-high with four RBI in the Phillies' 9-6 victory on Tuesday.
The homer was Howard's 16th of the season, and the reigning NL MVP has gone deep in consecutive games and in three of his last five contests. He also homered in back-to-back games on June 10-11.
Chase Utley added a two-run single and Pat Burrell a two-run double, as the offensive outburst helped young right-hander Kyle Kendrick to his first major league win.
Kendrick (1-0) allowed three runs on five hits, walked a batter and struck out one over six effective innings for Philadelphia, which snapped a two-game skid and moved within two games of the New York Mets for first place in the NL East.
Philadelphia's Jon Lieber will try to bounce back from a poor outing on Friday that dropped him to 1-3 over his last four starts. Against the Tigers last time out, the right-hander was hammered for seven runs -- six earned -- on 10 hits in just five innings of a 12-8 setback. Lieber also fanned five while falling to 3-5 on the season with a 4.21 earned run average.
The former Yankee, who threw his first shutout of the year on June 9 versus Kansas City, is 2-0 in three lifetime starts against Cleveland with a 2.75 ERA. He last faced them on September 2, 2004 and guided New York to a victory behind seven shutout innings.
Ryan Garko, who came into the game mired in a 2-for-41 slump, hit a solo homer in the second inning for Cleveland yesterday and added an RBI single in the fourth. Jason Michaels had a pair of RBI off the bench as he replaced David Dellucci in the game after Dellucci injured his left hamstring running out a ground ball.
The injury could land him on the disabled list.
Jason Stanford (1-1) was touched for six runs on six hits in 6 2/3 innings for the Indians, who had their two-game winning streak snapped and fell into a tie with Detroit for first-place in the AL Central.
Cleveland's C.C. Sabathia will try to become the American League's third 10- game winner this evening. Sabathia has been stuck on nine wins for his last two starts, as he got a no-decision on June 10 at Cincinnati before being handed his second loss of the season on Friday against Atlanta.
The left-hander went 8 1/3 frames against the Braves, but allowed five runs -- four earned -- on 12 hits with seven strikeouts in a 5-4 setback. The outing lifted his ERA to 3.19.
Sabathia took the loss in his only career start against the Phillies. That defeat came on June 10, 2002 after he yielded three runs in 6 2/3 innings of a 3-1 setback.
Cleveland and Philadelphia last met in 2002 at Jacobs Field, with the Indians winning two out of three in the series. The Indians are 100-89 all-time in interleague play, while the Phillies are 86-97.
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Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roger Federer and Justine Henin have
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venerable All England Club.
Federer enters the third Grand Slam event of the
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Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Astros have placed pitcher Brad
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Red Sox are back in the swing of things and will
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series with the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field.
Boston has won four of its last five
Pettitte toes the rubber as Yanks clash with Rockies >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andy Pettitte tries to win back-to-back starts for the
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Colorado Rockies th
Blue Jays turn to Halladay versus Dodgers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay gets the nod this
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Halladay is 7-2 with a 4.37 ERA in 12 starts this season
D'backs aim for series win over D-Rays >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks will try to win a series against
the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for the first time in franchise history when the
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Both clubs entere
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.
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