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07/22/2007 - (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 offense fell silent in a pitchers duel that ended up 1-0 in favor of the Jays.
Josh Towers pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings for the home team, giving up just three hits while striking out four and walking two for the Blue Jays, who have won two of three after a three-game slide.
Toronto's bullpen closed out the game with 2 1/3 innings of hitless relief, with Jeremy Accardo getting the final two outs in the ninth for his 15th save of the campaign.
Aaron Hill plated the lone run of the game for the Blue Jays with an RBI single in the second inning.
Jeff Weaver was the hard-luck loser, dropping to a dismal 2-8 on the season, after pitching eight solid innings. The right-hander gave up just the one run on four hits with four strikeouts and no walks.
Jose Vidro hit a pair of singles for the Mariners, while Jose Lopez posted a single as well.
Setting up to take the hill for the visiting Mariners this afternoon in the Great White North is right-hander Felix Hernandez. The three-year veteran made it through six innings against the Baltimore Orioles in his most recent outing on Tuesday, giving up three runs on eight hits and three walks, but he was still saddled with the loss in an 8-3 final at home.
As for Toronto, they go with former Cy Young winner Roy Halladay, who has been credited with just one win in the last four outings.
On Tuesday the 10-year veteran permitted only a single run on five hits and three walks, while striking out six over seven innings, and still that failed to get him and the Jays over New York in a 3-2 setback.
Halladay entered this season an even 3-3 versus Seattle all-time, but he took the loss in his previous start versus the Mariners, dropping him below .500 against the club.
Over the last week of action Vidro has a team-high eight hits, doing his damage in just five games while Ichiro Suzuki has seven hits and five runs scored in six outings. While he has one of the team's four home runs in the last week, Adrian Beltre has been anything but a reliable hitter, posting a .125 average in six starts for the Mariners, who are now just a game behind the Angels for first place in the AL West.
As for the Blue Jays, three games under .500 overall and 11 out of first in the AL East, they are hitting a collective .244 over the last seven games even with Alex Rios coming in at a .345 clip with a team-high four runs scored for a squad that has plated a total of only 15 runs in the last week of action.
Seattle, which had won a total of just 10 games against the Jays over the last three seasons combined, has already swept Toronto at Safeco Field and is 4-1 overall in 2007.
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Red Sox gun for their third straight win this afternoon
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On Saturday the Red Sox scored double-digit runs for the second straight
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It doesn't get much worse than this. Former NBA referee Tim
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The FBI is looking into whether D
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The eighth-seeded Szavay cruised
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San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Howard went 3-for-3 with a pair of
home runs and five RBI as the Philadelphia Phillies pounded the San Diego
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Twins go for sweep of Angels >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Losers of two straight and five of the last six, the LA
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against the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome this afternoon.
On Saturday Joe Mauer produced
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
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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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