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07/23/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Diego Padres have had a rough go of it lately on the road. A trip to Pittsburgh, though, could be just what they need, as the Padres open a three-game series against the Pirates tonight at PNC Park.
The Padres, who are 25-20 away from home this season, enter tonight's affair having dropped two of three in Atlanta and are 3-6 in the last nine games away from home. However, San Diego has traditionally thrived in the Steel City, where it hasn't lost a series since 2001.
San Diego's lead atop the National League West stands at three games over the San Francisco Giants, despite the series loss in Atlanta that culminated with an 8-0 setback on Thursday.
Clayton Richard (7-5) was tagged for nine hits and four runs (three earned) in six innings for the Padres, who were coming off Wednesday's come-from-behind 6-4 triumph in 12 innings.
"Definitely the first few innings I threw a lot more balls than I wanted to," said Richard. "When you're pounding the strike zone, good things usually happen. When you don't it's usually the opposite. That was the case the first three innings today."
Tonight the Padres turn to righty Kevin Correia, who is 6-6 with a 5.22 ERA. Correia beat the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, holding them to three runs and seven hits in six innings. The victory was his first in eight starts, but the Padres are 7-3 in his last 10 outings.
Correia has faced the Pirates six times (three starts) and is 1-1 with a 3.26 ERA.
Pittsburgh, meanwhile, was denied a series sweep against Milwaukee, falling 3-2 in Thursday's finale.
Ross Ohlendorf (1-8) was the hard-luck loser, allowing one run on five hits and a walk to go with six strikeouts for Pittsburgh, which lost for only the second time in its last six tries. Neil Walker went 2-for-3 and drove in both Pirates runs in the loss.
"You give up one run in six innings you can feel pretty good about it, especially against a pretty good offensive club," Pirates manager John Russell said of Ohlendorf's outing.
Pittsburgh had outscored Milwaukee 26-12 in the first two games of the set.
A big reason for that offensive outburst by the Pirates was the play of rookie third baseman Pedro Alvarez, who is hitting .417 (10-for-24) with four home runs, nine RBI and seven runs scored in six games since the All-Star break.
Alvarez homered four times in the first two games against the Brewers, as he became just the second player in the majors this season to homer twice in consecutive games.
Hoping for that kind of support tonight will be left-hander Paul Maholm, who didn't need any runs the last time he pitched. Maholm tossed a three-hit shutout to beat the Houston Astros on Sunday to run his record to 6-7 on the year, while lowering his ERA to 4.03.
Maholm, though, is 0-2 in three starts against the Padres with a 3.05 ERA.
San Diego is 8-3 in its last 11 trips to Pittsburgh.
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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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