Giants try to further close gap on West-leading Padres
Baseball Betting Lines
09/10/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The battle for National League West supremacy between the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres resumes this evening with the second installment of a four-game series from Petco Park.
The Giants drew first blood with Thursday's 7-3 win in the series opener, trimming San Diego's once-comfortable lead atop the division standings to just one game thanks to a 13-hit attack highlighted by two-run homers from veteran Aubrey Huff and rookie Buster Posey.
"This is such a big series," Huff said. "To be able to come out and get the first game is huge, you know. You lose that game, you're down three and it's a little bit deflating. But now you're back down to one. So we've got three more games here. We've got to keep rolling. If we win this and lose the rest it really doesn't mean much."
Juan Uribe and Pat Burrell both went deep for the Giants, who are also only a game behind Atlanta for the Senior Circuit's Wild Card berth as well. Huff and Freddy Sanchez finished with three hits apiece, while starting pitcher Matt Cain recorded the win with eight innings of three-run ball. Relievers Javier Lopez and Ramon Ramirez worked the ninth to preserve the victory.
San Francisco owns a 5-2 mark on their 10-game road trip against NL West foes and has won seven of its last nine games overall. It will send Jonathan Sanchez to the mound Friday night with hopes of him keeping an unbeaten streak intact. Sanchez is 2-0 in his last four starts and defeated the Dodgers on Sunday with seven shutout innings in a 3-0 win.
Sanchez reached 10 wins in a season for the first time in his career and will try to bounce back against a Padres club that beat him on August 13 at AT&T Park. In the 3-2 loss that day, Sanchez gave up three runs in 5 1/3 innings and is only 2-5 with a solid 2.88 ERA through 17 lifetime matchups (10 starts) with San Diego.
The Padres appeared to be back on track with a three-game sweep of Los Angeles following a season-high 10-game losing streak, but reverted back to their losing ways last night versus the hard-charging Giants.
Jon Garland was aiming for his 14th win of the season before he surrendered six runs on eight hits and three walks in five innings. Garland didn't get much help offensively, as the Padres ended with five hits, two of which off the bat of Ryan Ludwick.
Ludwick clubbed a two-run homer and Will Venable cracked a solo home run in defeat. Ludwick is hitting .225 with four home runs and 16 RBI in 36 games since being acquired from St. Louis in late July.
"I think it was just kind of one of those days that there were some balls that were well struck," Venable said. "It did seem like it was carrying a little more than usual."
San Diego fell to 3-4 on a 10-game residency versus division foes and is relying on starting pitcher Clayton Richard to pull the club back into the win column. Richard has a perfect track record against the Giants this season, having gone 3-0 with a 2.05 earned run average in four starts. He beat San Francisco on August 13 and is 3-1 in five career starts in this series.
Richard, however, is 0-1 despite a 1.98 ERA in his last two starts since going 5-0 over his previous six outings. He did not figure into the decision of Sunday's 4-2 loss versus Colorado, as he was reached for two runs -- one earned -- and nine hits in six frames. The lefty remained at 12-6 to go along with a 3.43 ERA in 28 starts this season.
San Diego has dominated the season series with the Giants by a 9-3 count, including a 4-2 ledger at Petco Park.
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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.