Brewers aim to extend Mets' recent misery
Baseball Betting Lines
06/30/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - While the Milwaukee Brewers are improving their stance in the National League Central, they're making it very difficult for the New York Mets to climb the NL East standings.
The NL Central-leading Brewers will resume a three-game series versus the Mets tonight at Miller Park and are coming off Monday's 10-6 win in the series opener. J.J. Hardy went 4-for-4 with a solo home run and Casey McGehee added a grand slam to break open the game in the sixth inning for Milwaukee, which moved a game ahead of St. Louis in the Central after the Cardinals lost to San Francisco Monday night.
"When I can be a little more removed from the situation, that is going to be something I always remember as really special," McGehee said on the team's site. "If someone would have told me this time last year that I was going to have 40,000 people calling me out of the dugout for a curtain call, I would have said you were lying."
McGehee made up for missing an easy pop fly to end the sixth inning, with his miscue allowing the Mets to score a pair of unearned runs. His first career grand slam then made a winner out of Braden Looper, who gave up three runs -- one earned -- in 6 1/3 innings. Carlos Villanueva was roughed up for three runs and five hits in only one-third of an inning, but closer Trevor Hoffman came to the rescue by getting the next two outs for his 18th save.
Milwaukee improved to 4-3 on a nine-game homestand and has won three of its last four games.
Brewers pitcher Mike Burns made his first major league start his last time out and will take another shot tonight versus the Mets. Burns was roughed up for four runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings of a 6-4 setback to Minnesota on Thursday to absorb the loss. He fell to 0-1 with a 3.72 ERA in two games (one start) this season.
The right-hander faced the Mets for the first and only time on June 22, 2006 at Shea Stadium, and did not factor in the outcome of a 6-2 setback. Burns was a member of Cincinnati at the time and yielded two hits in two shutout innings.
New York has been struggling and is caught in a funk, having lost four straight and nine of the last 13 games to fall below the .500 mark at 37-38. In Monday's four-run loss in the opener of this set and a seven-game road trip, starter Fernando Nieve suffered his first loss of the season after permitting three runs and 11 hits over 3 1/3 innings of work.
"I didn't have my stuff like I usually had before," Nieve stated on the team's Web site. "My fastball wasn't as good as it was before. I started getting behind on guys and they were pretty aggressive."
Gary Sheffield finished with three hits, including a home run, and three RBI, while Ryan Church added four hits and Brian Schneider knocked in a pair of runs for the Mets, whose rally in the ninth produced three runs before falling short after Hoffman took the hill.
New York is three games behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the NL East lead, but the Florida Marlins are second at 2 1/2 games off the pace. The Mets will visit Philadelphia for three games starting Friday.
Mets ace Johan Santana gets the nod for Jerry Manuel's ballclub tonight and he is coming off a strong performance versus St. Louis on Thursday. Santana was 1-3 with a 7.33 ERA in four starts before beating the Cardinals with seven strong innings on the mound. He allowed two runs -- one earned -- in a 3-2 victory at Citi Field to improve to 9-5 in 15 starts this season and lower his earned run average from 3.22 to 3.08.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner, who is 3-3 in six road starts this season, will square off with Milwaukee for the second time in 2009. Santana earned a 1-0 win over the Brewers on April 18, as he surrendered five hits with seven strikeouts and no walks through seven shutout frames. The lefty is 4-2 with a 3.13 ERA in 12 career games (8 starts) against the Brewers.
New York took two of three meetings versus Milwaukee from April 17-19 at Citi Field and has won eight of the past 12 matchups between the teams.
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What Is the Point Spread?
What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?
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.
How to Read Point Spreads
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:
- Philly wins the actual game by any amount of points
OR
- Philly loses the game by less than 7 points.
-
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.
For Those Who Like to Consider Things Mathematically
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
- Subtracting the point spread from the favorite’s score (thus the minus sign before the number) and then compare to the underdog’s score
OR
- Adding the point spread to the underdog’s score (thus the plus sign before the number) and then compare to the favorite’s score
Who Really “Won” the Super Bowl odds ?
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.
Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds
Super Bowl XLIII, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.Super Bowl XLIII is now set, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers will meet each other on February 1st in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium to battle it out for the coveted Lombardi Trophy. The game kicks off at 6:00pm ET on NBC with announcers Al Michaels and John Madden covering the on-field action. Super Bowl XLIII betting odds at online bookmaker MySportsbook.com have the Steelers listed as an early -6.5 against the spread favorite.Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds
Pittsburgh earned their passage to the big game by beating their division rival, the Baltimore Ravens, 23-14 in yesterday's AFC Championship Game. The Steelers jumped on Baltimore early, building a 13-0 first half lead, and never let up on their way to a fairly easy win. Although the Ravens did close to within two points in the fourth quarter, it never appeared as if they had enough offense to pull off the upset.
The Steelers dominating defense held Baltimore to a total of 198 yards while allowing them to convert just three third downs in 13 attempts. Pittsburgh also forced quarterback Joe Flacco into three interceptions, one of which safety Troy Polamalu returned fourty yards for a touchdown.
The Cardinals, by far the playoff team with the longest odds to reach Super Bowl XLIII, did so yesterday with a 32-25 upset of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship. Arizona charged out of the gates and built a 24-6 halftime lead that had the Eagles venerable defense reeling. Quarterback Kurt Warner and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald did most of the damage, connecting on three first half touchdowns.
Arizona, however, could not sustain their momentum and the Eagles took a 25-24 with 10:45 left to play in the fourth. The Cardinals, with the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance hanging in the balance, mounted a fourteen play, 72 yard touchdown drive that consumed 7:52 off the clock. Warner hit running back Tim Hightower on a short screen for the go-ahead, game clinching score that will forever live in Cardinal infamy.
MySportsbook.com's Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds:
Pittsburgh Steelers -6.5 (-110), Over 46.5 (-110), -260 (Money line)
Arizona Cardinals +6.5 (-110), Under 46.5 (-110), +220 (Money line)
Matt Foust won both of his conference championship plays yesterday and he is ready to serve up plenty of Super Bowl action. Each individual play costs $15.00, however, MySportsbook.com recommends purchasing Matt's NFL Playoff Package which includes all of Matt's Super Bowl props and picks from just $45.00.
Get free Super Bowl XLIII Betting from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com. Mysportsbook.com online Super Bowl betting with credit cards