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09/03/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Rays need all the wins they can get if the team is going to capture home-field advantage throughout the upcoming American League playoffs. With Matt Garza on the mound against the Baltimore Orioles, the postseason contenders figure to have a good chance of coming out on top tonight.
Garza puts a sensational career record versus Baltimore on the line in this evening's clash between the divisional foes from Camden Yards. The standout righty is 8-1 with a 3.14 earned run average over 11 lifetime matchups with the Orioles, which includes a 5-0 mark over seven starts as the visitor in this series.
The 26-year-old wasn't at his best in his most recent appearance at Camden Yards, however. Garza was rocked for seven runs and 10 hits over 6 1/3 innings while obtaining a no-decision in an 11-10 Orioles' victory, with Baltimore slugging four home runs off the Tampa hurler.
Garza has been significantly better as of late, as he brings a three-start unbeaten streak into tonight's tilt. The former first-round draft choice yielded just one run over a combined 14 1/3 innings in back-to-back wins over Texas and Oakland on August 17 and 22, respectively, then held Boston to a run through seven frames in a no-decision this past Saturday.
He'll be attempting to notch his 14th win of the season and move the Rays closer to first place in the AL East in the opener of this three-game series. Tampa Bay presently sits 1 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees in the race for the league's best record, but does a 6 1/2-game advantage on the Red Sox for the lead in the AL Wild Card standings.
The Rays won for the fourth time in their last five games on Wednesday, with David Price tossing eight outstanding innings and Evan Longoria delivering a tie-breaking RBI single in the bottom of the eighth that lifted the club to a 2-1 verdict over Toronto.
With the score tied at 1-1, Ben Zobrist drew a one-out walk against Blue Jays reliever Shawn Camp and moved to second when Carl Crawford greeted Scott Downs with a base hit. Longoria then singled through the left side, with Zobrist beating the throw to the plate to put Tampa Bay in front.
The clutch hit enabled Price (16-6) to win his 16th game of the year after the All-Star lefty allowed just one run -- a John Buck homer in the fifth inning -- and four hits while striking out seven.
"Unbelievable," second baseman Sean Rodriguez told the Rays' official site about Price. "That's the Price we've come to know and love right there."
Rafael Soriano held Toronto scoreless in the ninth to register his major league-leading 40th save, though the Rays closer had to work out of a big jam to get to that number.
Soriano retired the first batter he faced before surrendering a triple to Vernon Wells that placed the potential tying run 90 feet away. He would bear down and get a key strikeout of Adam Lind, however, before Buck flied out to the warning track in left to end the threat.
The Rays have won nine of 12 meetings with the Orioles, owners of the AL's worst record, so far in 2010, and are 5-1 in games between the teams held at Camden Yards this year.
Baltimore had ripped off four consecutive wins before dropping the final two tests of a three-game home series with Boston earlier in the week, with the Red Sox taking Thursday's rubber match by a 6-4 count.
Boston jumped out to a big early lead by scoring five times against O's starter Brad Bergesen in the second inning, though three of those runs were unearned due to an error by Baltimore first baseman Ty Wigginton.
Bergesen (6-10) lasted 5 1/3 innings in all and was reached for eight hits while issuing five walks.
"I was getting ahead of guys and then I was not executing," he said following the game.
Baltimore did cut its deficit with a four-run sixth inning, capped by Matt Wieters' two-RBI single, and made things interesting in the ninth as well. Felix Pie and Wieters began the frame with consecutive hits off Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon and Corey Patterson bunted both runners over to put men on second and third with one out. However, Papelbon struck out the next two hitters to protect the two-run edge.
Wieters ended 3-for-4 for Baltimore and Nick Markakis collected two hits, including an RBI single.
Kevin Millwood will oppose Garza tonight and hopes to duplicate his most recent effort, when the veteran right-hander fired eight shutout innings to defeat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Saturday.
That performance was one of the few bright spots for Millwood this season. The offseason addition has produced an unwanted 3-14 overall record and had lost six consecutive decisions prior to Saturday's breakthrough, which lowered his ERA to a still-unimpressive 5.34.
Millwood's only 2010 encounter with the Rays took place in his season debut back on April 6, with the 35-year-old giving up two runs in a five-inning no- decision in St. Petersburg. He's 2-2 with a 5.80 ERA over six lifetime starts against Tampa Bay.
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Ramir
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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