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07/22/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shooting for their third straight victory, the New York Yankees close out a four-game set against division rival Tampa Bay this afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
After being crushed in the series opener on Friday night by a score of 14-4, the Bronx Bombers rebounded to take both ends of a doubleheader on Saturday with a 7-3 victory in the opener and then a 17-5 thrashing in the nightcap.
The early game made a winner out of Luis Vizcaino, even though he pitched just one inning of relief behind a strong effort by starter Kei Igawa. Igawa allowed just two runs on seven hits, two of those home runs, over five innings of action. Shelley Duncan, Andy Phillips and Hideki Matsui all knocked in two runs, while Alex Rodriguez crossed the plate twice in the win.
BJ Upton had yet another home run for the Devil Rays and had a total of three hits in the first game, but it wasn't nearly enough as reliever Jae Kuk Ryu suffered the loss.
Yankee bats made a huge statement in the second game as they generated 20 hits, eight of those being doubles, in the lopsided decision. Rodriguez cranked his 33rd home run of the season, leaving him three shy of 500 for his career, and also knocked in four runs to leave him four shy of 100 RBI for the season.
Johnny Damon had a four-RBI game and Bobby Abreu finished 2-for-4 with three RBI and three runs scored for New York.
Yankees starter Matt DeSalvo gave up seven hits and four runs in 4 2/3 innings. Vizcaino threw 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to pick up his second win of the day.
JP Howell surrendered a career-high 10 hits and career-high seven runs in five innings for the Devil Rays, who had won three of four games heading into action on Saturday. Jonny Gomes went 3-for-4 with two runs scored for the visitors.
As someone who has never finished at or below .500 in a single season, Andy Pettitte is having a rough go of it in the Bronx this season, but with a 12-1 career mark against Tampa Bay this might be the perfect matchup for the left-hander this afternoon.
Pettitte, already 1-0 this season versus the Rays, allowed just a single run on seven hits over seven innings on Tuesday against Toronto, yet still failed to factor into what became a 3-2 win for the Bombers. The Louisiana native seemed to be hitting all of his spots in that outing, fanning a season-high seven batters along the way.
As for Tampa Bay, James Shields is just the opposite of Pettitte because he has yet to earn a victory against New York, now 0-3 after losing his first decision of the season to the Yankees.
Shields, who is just a single game over .500 for his career at the moment, picked up his eighth win of the campaign on Tuesday when he permitted just two runs on seven hits over seven innings of work. He walked one and struck out two, which means he's fanned a total of just four in his last two outings after coming up with a total of 27 in the previous three games.
With their two wins yesterday the Yankees moved to within 7 1/2 games of Boston for first place in the AL East and are now 31-20 at home in 2007 while Tampa Bay wallows in last in the division, a mere 16-31 on the road and 20 games out of contention.
As he has done for much of the season, Rodriguez leads the majors in both home runs (33) and RBI (96) and now has nine runs scored as well over the last eight games.
The Devil Rays, who have won just four times in the last 14 games in the Bronx, have gotten huge production out of Upton in the last seven days, watching him knock out three home runs, plate nine and score nine times himself.
The Yankees now lead the season series 6-5 after yesterday's double header sweep.
<< Streaking Tigers aim to crown Royals
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Winners in five of their last six and now two games ahead
of Cleveland for first place in the American League Central, the Detroit
Tigers close out a three-game set against the Kansas City Royals at Comerica
Park this afterno
<< Red Sox try to stay offensive against White Sox
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Red Sox gun for their third straight win this afternoon
as they close out a four-game set against the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park
in Boston.
On Saturday the Red Sox scored double-digit runs for the second straight
<< NBA is hurting
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It doesn't get much worse than this. Former NBA referee Tim
Donaghy is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly betting on and fixing
games that he worked during the past two seasons.
The FBI is looking into whether D
<< Szavay captures Palermo title
Palermo, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Agnes Szavay of Hungary captured her first
career WTA Tour singles title with a straight-set rout of Germany's Martina
Muller in the final of the Palermo International.
The eighth-seeded Szavay cruised
Orioles, Athletics conclude set in Oakland >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Losers of two of their last three, the Baltimore Orioles
conclude their West Coast swing this afternoon at McAfee Coliseum as they face
off against the Oakland Athletics in the finale of a three-game set.
On Saturday night
Mariners, Blue Jays try to get offenses going at Rogers Centre >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shut out for the fourth time this season, the Seattle
Mariners try to bounce back this afternoon as they challenge the Toronto Blue
Jays in the finale of a three-game set at the Rogers Centre.
On Saturday the Seattle offen
Cubs, Diamondbacks play rubber match at Wrigley >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sean Marshall will square off against the Arizona
Diamondbacks for the first time in his career this afternoon when the Chicago
Cubs wrap a three-game set with Arizona at Wrigley Field.
Marshall is also winless in his las
Byrd, Rangers best Indians >>
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marlon Byrd matched his career high with
five RBI as the Texas Rangers beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-5, in the third of
a four-game set at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
Byrd had a two-run double in th
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.
The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)
But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)
Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.
The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.
Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.
Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.
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