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08/12/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - If the Dodgers plan on leaving the City of Brotherly Love with a series win over Philadelphia this evening, starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw may have to do something he's never done before.
Kershaw is scheduled to pitch in Thursday's finale of a three-game series against a Phillies team he hasn't been able to beat in four career regular- season starts. He is 0-3 with a 6.64 earned run average in his career against Philadelphia, which previously beat him during last year's NLCS.
The left-hander has lost two straight starts overall and three of his last four decisions. Kershaw was last in action during Friday's 6-3 loss versus Washington and yielded six runs and seven hits in six innings. Kershaw, who fell to 10-7 in 23 starts and raised his ERA to 3.19, owns a 4-4 mark in 10 outings as the guest this season.
Los Angeles is still alive in the playoff race and sits 5 1/2 games off the NL Wild Card lead. It's also eight games behind San Diego for the top spot in the National League West Division and suffered a 2-0 loss last night after taking Tuesday's series opener by a 15-9 score. Phils starter Roy Oswalt held the Dodgers in check with seven shutout innings, while Scott Podsednik ended with a team-best three hits for the Dodgers.
Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley pitched well enough for the win, but allowed two runs with three walks and three K's to absorb his seventh loss (9-7).
"You just can't make too many mistakes in these types of games," Billingsley said after LA's three-game winning streak came to an end.
Philadelphia is in the same situation as Los Angeles and is also fighting for a playoff spot. It is tied with Cincinnati at one game behind San Francisco in the NL Wild Card standings and remained 2 1/2 games in back of Atlanta for NL East bragging rights.
Oswalt was on point in his home debut for the Phils, as he struck out five and walked two batters for the win. Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge both tossed a scoreless innings of relief, with Lidge picking up his 15th save.
"I pitched here before and I like the mound here," Oswalt said of his home debut with the Phillies. "It really wasn't too bad."
Raul Ibanez extended his hitting streak to a career-best 18 games with two hits and an RBI. Ibanez is batting .409 with four homers and 17 RBI during his run. Domonic Brown drove in the other run for the Phillies, who have won seven of their last nine games. The Phillies saw another player go down because of injury after Ross Gload exited the game with a groin problem. Veteran Mike Sweeney replaced him and could start tonight for the Phils, who are already without Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Shane Victorino.
The Phillies would like to see Joe Blanton keep the winning tradition going when he toes the rubber tonight. Blanton has posted back-to-back no-decisions and is coming off a strong start last Friday in a 7-5 win over the New York Mets. Blanton held the despised NL East foes to a pair of runs in seven innings, and remained at 4-6 in 18 starts to go along with a 5.65 ERA.
Blanton is 3-2 in nine home starts this season and will make his fifth career start against Los Angeles tonight. He is 1-0 with a 2.88 ERA in four career matchups -- all starts -- with the Dodgers.
Philadelphia took all three matchups at home in defeating Los Angeles in five games during last year's NLCS, but the Dodgers have won in three of their last five visits to Citizens Bank Park in the regular season.
<< Internacional wins first leg of Copa Lib final
Guadalajara, Mexico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Giuliano and Bolivar scored in a four-
minute span of the second half, and Brazil's Internacional defeated Mexico's
Guadalajara, 2-1, on Wednesday night in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores
final.
<< Brewers place Hawkins on DL
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Milwaukee Brewers have placed pitcher
LaTroy Hawkins on the 15-day disabled list because of right shoulder weakness.
Hawkins is on the DL for the second time this season, as he was sidelined from
May
<< Red Sox have brooms ready in finale at Toronto
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Red Sox try to continue their recent mastery of
the Toronto Blue Jays this afternoon when they go for a sweep in their three-
game series at Rogers Centre,
Boston won for the ninth time in 11 chances against
<< Showalter's Orioles shoot for sweep of Tribe
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Orioles hope to continue their resurgence
under new manager Buck Showalter this evening, when they shoot for a season-
high fifth straight win in the finale of a three-game set with the Cleveland
Indians
American defender Lichaj signs new deal at Villa >>
Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - American defender Eric Lichaj signed a
new three-year contract with Aston Villa on Wednesday.
Lichaj joined Aston Villa in 2007, but has yet to break into the first team.
He spent parts of the last t
Thorn joins Sixers as club president >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rod Thorn wasn't out of work long, as the
former New Jersey Nets president has landed the same role with the
Philadelphia 76ers.
Thorn spent 10 years as team president and general manager o
Isiah nixes Knicks? Not so fast >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Isiah Thomas' status in New York is all
about semantics now.
Consultant or not, it's clear Thomas still has the ear of Madison Square
Garden chairman James Dolan, a scary thought for Knicks fans who regard
Cards send a message in Cincinnati >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - If the St. Louis Cardinals manage to hold on and win
their second straight National League Central title, they may very well point
to Tuesday as being the turning point in their season.
And, they will have Cincinnati sec
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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