Hoffman blows save as Dodgers edge Padres
Baseball Betting Lines
04/28/2007 -
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Russell Martin's double in the top of the
ninth plated the go-ahead runs as part of a four-run rally, as Los Angeles
held on to edge San Diego, 6-5, in the opener of a three-game set at Petco
Park.
Nomar Garciaparra was 4-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored for the Dodgers,
who snapped a four-game skid. Rafael Furcal scored twice, and both Luis
Gonzalez and Marlon Anderson scored once.
Mark Hendrickson went five innings, allowing two hits and one run while
fanning four and walking a pair in a no-decision. Rudy Seanez (1-0) earned the
victory by hurling a scoreless eighth inning.
Takashi Saito gave up a run in the ninth, but picked up his seventh save of
the season.
Clay Hensley pitched 6 1/3 innings, yielding six hits and two runs, striking
out five and walking four. Trevor Hoffman (1-2) earned the dubious double
distinction of blowing his second save of the season and losing the game by
surrendering four runs in two-thirds of an inning.
Adrian Gonzalez was 2-for-5 with an RBI and run scored for the Padres, who
have dropped three straight. Jose Cruz Jr. hit his fourth home run of the
season, Josh Bard was 3-for-4 with a double and a run batted in, Khalil Greene
drove in a pair, and Brian Giles scored twice.
Down by two with Hoffman in the game to close things out, the Dodgers rallied.
Anderson led off with a pinch-hit single, then Furcal reached when Hoffman and
Gonzalez were unable to sync up on his grounder to first. Juan Pierre's
sacrifice bunt moved the runners up to second and third, then Garciaparra
laced a double to the wall in left-center to tie the game, 4-4.
Jeff Kent popped out and Gonzalez was walked intentionally to load the bases.
Martin then drilled a pitch to dead center off Mike Cameron's glove, which
plated two more and put the Dodgers on top, 6-4.
Hoffman was finally lifted in favor of Heath Bell, who got Andre Ethier to
strike out and end the frame.
Saito came on in the bottom of the inning, and got two outs before Cruz made
it 6-5 with a shot to right. Saito hit Giles with a pitch, but Adrian Gonzalez
flied out to center to end the game.
"A lot of crazy things did happen, but the bottom line is everyone is
trying to win the ballgame," said Hoffman about the ninth inning.
The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the second when Wilson Valdez laid down a bunt
up the line at third for a base hit that scored Martin.
San Diego countered in the fourth on Greene's sac fly to center that brought
home Giles, and broke the game open courtesy of a three-run sixth inning.
With Chad Billingsley on the hill, Marcus Giles led off with an infield
single. Cruz flied out, but Brian Giles singled to center to move his younger
brother to third. Gonzalez followed with a single to center which made it 2-1
for the home team, and when Ethier's throw to third missed its target, he took
second.
Greene followed with his second sacrifice fly of the game to make it 3-1, then
Bard doubled down the line in left to score Adrian Gonzalez and give the
Padres a 4-1 advantage.
Furcal toured the bases in the seventh to bring the Dodgers within 4-2, as he
singled with one down, stole second, and scored on Pierre's base hit.
The Padres had the bases loaded in the eighth off Seanez, but Ethier made a
tremendous diving shoestring catch on Kevin Kouzmanoff's sinking line-drive to
prevent any more runs from scoring.
"Ethier's catch was the game," said Dodgers manager Grady Little. "That one
off of Rudy, that was the ball game."
Game Notes
Prior to the game, the Padres activated Bard from the 15-day disabled list and
placed infielder Russell Branyan on the bereavement list...Jim Wolf, brother
of LA pitcher Randy Wolf, umpired at third base...Hoffman's appearance made
him the third pitcher in major-league history to pitch at least 800 games for
one franchise, joining Roy Face (PIT) and Walter Johnson (WSH) at
802...Garciaparra collected four hits for the first time since July, 2004, and
had a run batted in for the sixth consecutive game...Attendance was 44,035.
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Elite 8 NCAA Tournament Betting at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com
In what should be an outstanding Saturday of March Madness betting action, the top four teams in the South and West Regions square off in what should be extremely close match-ups. Three of the four teams are coming off extremely close games on Thursday evening, only UCLA won semi comfortably over Pitt 64-55.
Ohio State is coming off their second game in a row where in all reality they should have lost. Of course that doesn’t matter now since the name of the game is “survive and advance” but as the tournament continues, they can’t afford to keep getting down to their opponents early. Kansas also avoided a scare by holding off a scrappy Southern Illinois squad. In the third thrilling game of the evening Memphis pulled off the minor upset (+3.5) despite being the higher seed to Texas A&M.
Although the spreads are fairly small for Saturday’s games, MySportsbook.com continue to bet against the underdogs. Despite OSU’s two scares, 86% of the “betting public” feels the Buckeyes (-1.5) have what it takes to make the Final Four. In fact, so much of the early money is on OSU that the line has already moved from -1 to -1.5. In the second game of the doubleheader, Kansas and their high-powered offense are 2 point favorites as they take on UCLA and their effective defense. About 63% of the early money thus far is once again backing the favorites. If those percentages stay that high, don’t be surprised if this line moves as well. If you like Kansas (-2) you might want to jump on it early.
Memphis vs. Ohio State
Both squads were involved in thrillers on Thursday evening and should come out fired up. OSU can ill afford to get behind early like they did versus their previous two opponents (Xavier, Tennessee). Greg Oden needs to stay out of foul trouble; the Buckeyes are a completely different team when he is on the court. Memphis definitely has the athleticism and length to match-up with OSU. Of Memphis’ five leading minute earners, the shortest of the bunch is 6’5”. Each team has a very effective defense; Memphis surrenders 62.3 PPG whereas the Buckeyes give up only 61 PPG. With those type of numbers, it isn’t surprising that Memphis covered the UNDER almost 69% of the time this season. As a favorite, OSU has covered the UNDER almost 66% of the time over the last three seasons. The major concern for Memphis which is magnifies this time of the year is their brutal foul shooting (62%). This season, OSU is 17-11 ATS versus teams with a winning record and 7-2 ATS in all tournament games. Memphis has been an extremely reliable cover in tournament play in recent years with a 23-8 ATS record over the last three seasons.
UCLA vs. Kansas
In the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, UCLA will play in a role which they are very unfamiliar with that of the underdog. Only twice this season have they been getting points from the handicappers and both times they covered. Over the last three seasons UCLA is a reliable 23-7 ATS in this unfamiliar role. UCLA has not fared well against Big 12 opponents recently going 1-7 ATS since 1997. Giving up only 59.6 PPG, UCLA will definitely look to do what they do best: keep this game as low scoring as possible. Their defense has been especially tough during the tournament. UCLA opponents have been able to muster up only 48.7 PPG while shooting a combined 34.5% from the field. UCLA definitely has a challenge at hand with a Kansas team that is capable of putting points on the board in bunches. As a team, they average 79 PPG and shoot an impressive 49.6% from the field and 39.4% from beyond the arc. During the tournament Kansas has been “lights out” from the field having shot 56.2%.
With Friday -105 juice on Basketball betting, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on all of the “March Madness” action. Don’t forget to monitor who the public is backing at MySportsbook.com’s “Betting Trends”. By doing so, you have the best chance of predicting a possible line change, thus getting the best value for your wager.
To bet on March Madness games this online sportsbook accepts credit cards
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.
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.”
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Bonds nearly hits HR 751, SF wins
4 and drove in
a pair of runs, and Barry Bonds nearly hit homer No. 751 as San Francisco beat
1, in the middle contest of three at AT&T Park.
6) allowed five hits and one run over 6 2/3 innings, fanning
eight and walking three.
game slide.
Bonds, who came within five homers of Hank Aaron's record on Friday, went
1 with three walks, an RBI double and scored twice. The double ...
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