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07/29/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of last-place teams seeking to end lengthy losing streaks begin a four-game series tonight at Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium, where the slumping Royals hope to get well at the expense of the lowly Baltimore Orioles.
Baltimore enters this evening's clash having lost five consecutive games and owns the worst record in the majors at 31-70. The Orioles have been especially bad since the All-Star break, compiling an awful 2-11 mark to begin the second half.
The Orioles' three most recent defeats came on the road at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays, including a 5-0 setback in Wednesday's series finale. Baltimore mustered a mere three hits off rookie Brad Mills and three Jays relievers in suffering its 12th consecutive loss to Toronto this season.
"We've been through this all season against these guys," said Orioles manager Juan Samuel. "We gotta make better adjustments in games and try and get it done."
Baltimore's lack of offense spoiled a strong showing from starter Jeremy Guthrie (4-11), with the right-hander limiting the Blue Jays to one unearned run over seven innings in a hard-luck loss. Reliever Will Ohman gave up a three-run homer to Lyle Overbay as Toronto scored four times in the bottom of the eighth to break open the contest.
Kansas City will attempt to rebound from a forgettable last few days in which the club has lost four straight games and received atrocious pitching during the slide. The Royals allowed a whopping 42 runs over the first three defeats, then received another shaky performance out of Brian Bannister in yesterday's 6-4 loss to visiting Minnesota.
The Twins jumped out to a commanding 5-0 lead over the first four innings and held off a late Kansas City comeback attempt to complete a sweep of the three- game series.
"We gave them a [five] run lead and that helped their pitcher relax and do what he had to do," said Royals manager Ned Yost. "It just puts too much pressure on us when that happens."
Bannister (7-10) lost his fourth straight start after being tagged for five runs and 11 hits over the first six innings.
Yuniesky Betancourt and Willie Bloomquist had RBI singles during a two-run fifth inning for Kansas City, and Rick Ankiel pulled the Royals within 5-4 with a two-RBI base hit in the bottom of the eighth. Ankiel and Bloomquist each finished with a pair of hits in a losing cause.
Scott Podsednik went 2-for-5 in what turned out to be his final game in a Royals uniform. Kansas City traded the veteran outfielder to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a pair of minor-leaguers. Podsednik was batting .310 with 30 stolen bases and was riding a 15-game hitting streak at the time of the deal.
Although Royals pitchers have certainly had their problems as of late, the team has prevailed in each of Kyle Davies' last four starts and the inconsistent hurler has generally performed well over that stretch. The right- hander allowed seven runs over a combined 20 2/3 innings of work in recording three straight no-decisions to begin July, and enters tonight's test off his first victory in nearly two months.
Davies was reached for four runs and served up three homers in Saturday's matchup with the New York Yankees, but received a wealth of offensive support in Kansas City's 7-4 verdict over the defending world champions. He had not won in eight straight starts that followed a May 28 besting of Boston.
The 26-year-old hasn't won at home since April 26, though, and is just 1-4 with a 5.11 earned run average in eight trips to the Kauffman Stadium mound so far this season.
Davies will be attempting to duplicate a mid-May triumph over the Orioles in which he held tonight's opponent to two runs in six innings. He's 2-1 in four overall encounters with Baltimore, but has registered a poor 6.65 ERA over those games.
While Davies was able to end a lengthy winless drought his last time out, Baltimore's Brian Matusz has had trouble coming out on top all throughout his difficult 2009 campaign. The preseason Rookie of the Year candidate takes the hill tonight having lost 11 of 12 decisions since starting out the season with a pair of victories.
Matusz seemed to get back on track when he fired seven shutout innings to defeat Boston on July 4, but the highly-regarded lefty has gone 0-2 with a brutal 12.10 ERA in three starts since. He gave up three runs in five innings of a loss to Minnesota last Saturday, still a major improvement over a horrid 1 2/3-inning stint against Toronto in which the former first-round draft pick was shelled for six runs on five hits.
This will be the first career start against the Royals for Matusz, who's notched all three of his wins this season on the road.
These teams split a pair of meetings in Baltimore back in May, as well as a four-game series held at Kauffman Stadium last season.
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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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