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08/29/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The National League East-leading Atlanta Braves were able to end their four-game slide with last night's win versus the Florida Marlins. This afternoon they'll try for a series victory over their division rivals in the finale of a three-game set from Turner Field.
Atlanta broke out the bats in a huge way by handing the Marlins a 12-3 loss Saturday in the second test of this series. Matt Diaz homered to highlight a six-run second inning and Martin Prado belted a two-run homer and finished with a career-best five RBI for the Braves, who are still two games in front of Philadelphia in the NL East after the Phillies beat San Diego.
Eric Hinske went deep and Brian McCann drove in three runs in the win.
Braves starter Tim Hudson struck out a career-high 13 batters through seven strong innings, allowing just one run, six hits and one walk to improve to 15-5 on the season.
"I hope that I never have to try to win a game to stop a losing streak," Hudson said. "Hopefully, those losing streaks don't happen for the rest of the season. I know that you can't win them all, but I feel like whenever I go out there, I feel like we're going to have a good chance to win."
The Braves will host the New York Mets for four games after this set.
Derek Lowe draws the start for Atlanta this afternoon and has lost three straight outings. He is also only 2-7 with a 4.20 earned run average in his past 11 starts and pitched well enough for a win his last time out. In a 5-2 loss at Colorado on Tuesday, Lowe tossed six innings of three-run ball to fall to 11-12 in 27 starts to go along with a 4.33 ERA.
The lanky right-hander, who is 8-5 in 14 starts at Turner Field, will face Florida for the 19th time in his career. In 18 appearances (13 starts) against the Marlins, Lowe is 6-4 with three saves and a 5.03 ERA.
Florida had a three-game winning streak come to an end last night and was hoping to see Ricky Nolasco post his 15th win of the season. Instead Nolasco was reached for six runs, seven hits and walked three batters in only two innings of work to suffer the loss.
Andrew Miller did no better in relief and yielded four runs -- three earned -- in just four innings. Donnie Murphy, Emilio Bonifacio and Brad Davis each had an RBI for the Marlins, who dropped 6 1/2 games off the lead in the wild card race. The Marlins are also 8 1/2 games in back of Atlanta in the NL East.
"It was (deflating), but it's going to happen," Marlins first baseman Gaby Sanchez said of the loss. "You're going to lose ball games. Sometimes, you're going to lose them like we did today, 12-3. Sometimes, they'll be close ones, but we just have to forget about today and forget about what happened. Just bounce back, and tomorrow's a new day."
Florida should feel confident with All-Star Josh Johnson set to take the mound Sunday. Johnson, however, is only 1-2 with a 5.06 earned run average in his previous six starts. After throwing eight innings of two-run ball in a win at Pittsburgh on August 18, Johnson did not factor in the outcome of a 6-5 loss against the Mets on Tuesday.
Johnson was reached for four runs -- three earned -- and six hits in five innings at Citi Field. He remained at 11-5 in 26 starts and raised his ERA slightly from 2.27 to 2.36. The right-hander is 4-2 in 13 career games, 12 of which have been starts, against Atlanta.
The Braves are 6-5 against the Marlins this season.
<< LA sends Lilly to mound in Colorado
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ted Lilly will try to stay unbeaten in Dodger blue this
afternoon, as he takes the hill in the finale of a three-game series against
the NL West-rival Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.
Lilly has won all five starts
<< Giants wrap up series vs. D'Backs
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Giants rookie Buster Posey is a big reason for the club's
success, but a forearm strain has been bothering the young catcher lately. He
is expected to be back in today's lineup versus the Arizona Diamondbacks in
the fin
<< 2010 World Basketball Championship update - August 29th
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) -
Group C Halftime: China 41 Ivory Coast 33 (Ankara)
Group D Halftime: Canada 43 Lithuania 33 (Izmir)
Group A End of 1st Quarter: Jordan 17 Angola 16 (Kayseri)
Group B End of 1st Quarter : USA 23 Slovenia 11 (Istanbul
<< Marlins' infield dirt to provide Miami a challenge
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) -When No. 13 Miami opens its season Thursday, it's probable that some of the Hurricanes will be bloodied and scraped by the time the game ends.And it might not be Florida A&M's fault, either.The Hurricanes' roughest oppon
Reds, Cubs conclude set in Cincy >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rookie left-hander Travis Wood steps into Edinson Volquez's
spot in the Cincinnati starting rotation today, when the first-place Reds
close out a three-game weekend series with the visiting Chicago Cubs at Great
America
Cards' Wainwright goes for win No. 18 in Washington >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - St. Louis Cardinals co-ace Adam Wainwright will try to
become the first 18-game winner in the National League when he takes the ball
Sunday afternoon in the finale of a four-game series from Nationals Park.
Wainwrigh
Richard, Padres aim to salvage set with Phils >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Padres left-hander Clayton Richard will try to keep his
unbeaten streak intact and pull San Diego to victory this afternoon against
the Philadelphia Phillies in the finale of a three-game series at Petco Park.
Richa
Twins have brooms ready for Mariners >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Twins will attempt to complete a three-game
road sweep of the lowly Seattle Mariners today at Safeco Field.
Carl Pavano, one of the majors' most surprising performers in 2010, will take
the ball for Minn
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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