D'Backs go for first-ever sweep in Brew City
Baseball Betting Lines
08/12/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arizona's four-game series with Milwaukee has certainly featured some exciting moments for the club, but there is one more thing left to do.
The Diamondbacks, who have already secured their first series win at Miller Park since September of 2003, will try for their first-ever sweep of the Brewers in this afternoon's finale.
Arizona kicked off this series with an extra-inning victory on Monday to snap a seven-game slide to Milwaukee, then won on Tuesday to record back-to-back wins over the club for the first time in over a year. Wednesday's meeting featured the biggest highlight of the series as four Diamondback batters hit consecutive homers off Brewers starter Dave Bush in the fourth inning to spark an 8-2 victory and tie a major league record.
The homer run on Bush came over a span of 10 pitches and was started by Adam LaRoche. Miguel Montero, Mark Reynolds and Stephen Drew all went deep in succession as Arizona became the first team to hit four consecutive homers since the White Sox on Aug. 14, 2008 and Bush the first pitcher since the Yankees' Chase Wright on April 22, 2007.
"It was pretty wild. I was like, 'what am I supposed to do now?' It was pretty special," Drew said. "It was one of those things you don't see too often. It was fun. My brother [Boston's J.D. Drew] was a part of two of them, so now he's only one-up on me."
Lost in the power display was the outing by Daniel Hudson, who struck out a career-high nine batters over seven innings to win his third start in as many games since being acquired from the White Sox. Hudson retired 16 of the final 20 batters faced and also hit a three-run double in the sixth.
Arizona has won six of its last seven, while Milwaukee's three-game slide comes after it won three straight and five of six.
Prince Fielder, in his 300th straight start, and Casey McGehee hit back-to- back homers to start the bottom of the second inning, but Bush allowed seven runs over 5 1/3 frames in the loss.
"In the fourth inning with four home runs in a row, Bush was dislocating his pitches," Brewers manager Ken Macha said. "He went right down the middle with them. The sixth inning kind of opened the game up."
All-Star Ryan Braun did not start for a third straight game, but did pinch- hit. However, he is expected to be in the lineup at the start of the game today.
Arizona goes for its sweep behind Rodrigo Lopez, who hasn't won since July 8 and is 0-3 with a 5.70 earned run average in five starts since. He faced the Padres on Saturday and did not factor into the decision of a 6-5 win after allowing three runs on eight hits over five innings.
The 34-year-old right-hander is 5-10 with a 4.66 ERA on the season and 1-0 with a 2.84 ERA in three career starts versus the Brewers, who he hasn't faced since July 14, 2007 while with the Rockies.
Randy Wolf draws the starting assignment for the Brewers and he has settled down nicely since allowing 12 runs in a loss to the Pirates on July 21. The lefty is 1-0 with a 2.29 ERA in three subsequent starts and he picked up his first win since July 21 on Saturday versus Houston after yielding a pair of runs over 6 2/3 innings.
"Wolf had a lot of baserunners the first five innings. He had eight baserunners but he did a good job getting out of jams," said Macha.
The 33-year-old Wolf is 8-9 with a 4.81 ERA this year and 9-3 with a 4.39 ERA in his career versus the Diamondbacks, who he beat on May 8 after giving up three runs over six innings of a 17-3 victory.
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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.