Pujols slugs 400th HR, but Cards fall to Nats in 13th
Baseball Betting Lines
08/27/2010 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Albert Pujols became the fastest player in number of seasons to hit 400 home runs, but Ian Desmond's single in the bottom of the 13th inning lifted Washington over St. Louis, 11-10, in the opener of a four-game set from Nationals Park.
Desmond finished with four hits and three RBI for the Nationals, who put the brakes on a four-game skid. Roger Bernadina slugged a game-tying two-run blast in the ninth.
Doug Slaten (4-1) got the win with a scoreless inning of relief.
Randy Winn finished 4-for-6 with three RBI, Skip Schumaker also drove in three runs, while Pujols collected two hits and walked three times for the Cardinals, who have lost three in a row and fell four games behind idle Cincinnati in the NL Central.
Blake Hawksworth (4-8) was charged with two hits and the winning run while recording just one out in the 13th.
The Cards' final hurler began the deciding frame by hitting Nyjer Morgan with a pitch before fanning Ryan Zimmerman. Alberto Gonzalez singled to move Morgan to third, and Morgan scored when Desmond drilled a hit off Schumaker's glove with a drawn-in infield.
Schumaker's RBI single in the first got St. Louis on the board before Washington tallied three times in the third on Zimmerman's RBI hit and a two- run single from Desmond.
Pujols began the fourth inning against Nats starter Jordan Zimmermann with a long blast to right for the milestone homer that cut the visitors' deficit to 3-2. Two singles and a hit batter loaded the bases, before Schumaker's base hit plated two. Pedro Feliz added another single and two batters later a Felipe Lopez groundout scored Yadier Molina for a 5-3 game.
The Nats drew within one in the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Adam Dunn, then moved ahead in the sixth on a pair of sac flys from pinch-hitter Mike Morse and Adam Kennedy.
Washington then took an 8-5 edge in the seventh as Zimmerman walked, Desmond singled and Ivan Rodriguez walked ahead of Willie Harris' two-run single.
Pujols doubled with one out in the eighth and scored on Winn's two-out RBI single for an 8-6 contest.
Feliz opened the ninth with a single, Aaron Miles followed with a base hit and Brendan Ryan cut the Cards' deficit to 8-7 with a double to left. Jon Jay fanned and Pujols was given a free pass before Matt Holliday was hit on the left wrist to force in the tying run.
Sean Burnett came on only to give up the go-ahead, two-run hit to Winn to make it 10-8 before Molina hit into an inning-ending double play.
Gonzalez began the home half against Ryan Franklin with a single and scored on Bernadina's one-out, two-run shot that landed just over the scoreboard in right.
Game Notes
Pujols, in his 10th major-league season, snapped the previous mark of 11 years to reach the 400-homer plateau last set by Alex Rodriguez in 2005...In addition, the Dominican slugger, at 30 years, 222 days old, became the third- youngest to reach the plateau, after Rodriguez at 29 years, 316 days and Ken Griffey, Jr. at 30 years, 150 days...Holliday left the game with a bruised left hand...Prior to the contest, the Nats officially introduced top-overall pick, 17-year-old outfielder Bryce Harper, who thrilled a crowd in pre-game batting practice by reaching the third deck in right field...Zimmermann, who made his season debut after recovering from Tommy John surgery, allowed seven hits and five runs with four strikeouts in four innings...The Nats optioned pitcher Collin Balester to Triple-A Syracuse late Wednesday to make room for Zimmermann...Cards starter Chris Carpenter yielded 10 hits and six runs -- three earned -- over six full frames.
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Francisco Liriano pitched seven innings to win his sixth consecutive decision as the Twins pounded Cliff Lee early and held off Texas, 6-4, to avoid a four-game sweep in a battle of division leaders
<< Packers lay waste to Colts
Green Bay, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aaron Rodgers threw for 195 yards and three
touchdowns, as Green Bay flexed its offensive muscle in a 59-24 rout of
Indianapolis at Lambeau Field.
Rodgers completed 21-of-29 passes to increase his p
<< Stakhovsky stuns Baghdatis to reach New Haven semifinals
New Haven, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ninth-seeded Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky won
a pair of matches Thursday, including stunning top-seeded Cypriot Marcos
Baghdatis in three sets to reach the semifinals at the $750,000 Pilot Pen
Tennis
<< Jackson stellar again as Sox shut out Orioles
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Edwin Jackson continued to shine in a White Sox
uniform, leading Chicago to an 8-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles in the
rubber match of a three-game series.
Jackson, acquired from Arizona at the trade dead
<< Brown lifts Rams over Pats in final seconds
Foxboro, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Brown's 37-yard field goal in the final
seconds lifted St. Louis to a 36-35 win over New England in a preseason
contest from Gillette Stadium.
Sam Bradford was under center for the first half, go
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) -The probe into North Carolina's football program added another prong. Along with it came another batch of question marks to cloud a promising season.The school's announcement that the investigation of the Tar Heels' program h
WR Camarillo caught off guard by trade to Vikings >>
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Just two days ago, the only time Greg Camarillo figured to be spending in Minnesota was when his Miami Dolphins play here in September.Now he lives here.The Vikings acquired Camarillo in a trade on Wednesday for cornerback Benny S
No. 9 Iowa hoping it won't kick away 2010 >>
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -Iowa has become known for nail-biting finishes, which often leaves the Hawkeyes in need of a kicker they can trust in the clutch.Coach Kirk Ferentz isn't sure he's got a reliable leg to lean on. He used terms like ``underwhelmi
NY gov could face charge over World Series tickets >>
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Gov. David Paterson could face a criminal charge over his testimony surrounding tickets he secured last year from the New York Yankees for the opening game of the World Series.The state's former chief judge, acting as a special c
Hurricanes get a surprise visit from LeBron >>
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) - LeBron James went back to school Thursday, working out against the Miami Hurricanes.The NBA's two-time reigning MVP and some of his new Miami Heat teammates made a surprise stop at the university's basketball facility for s
Sportsbook Betting Lines
Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?
Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.
“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.
“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?
There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).
How the Opening Line Is Made
The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.
Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.
The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.
Why Sports Betting Lines Change
Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game
Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.
Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.
Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”
To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.