Eaton beats former team as Phils top Padres

Baseball Betting Lines

07/21/2007 - San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chase Utley went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run as the Philadelphia Phillies downed the San Diego Padres, 7-3, in the second of a four-game series at Petco Park.

Ryan Howard went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored while Shane Victorino scored a pair of runs for the Phillies, who had lost four of five coming into the game.

Adam Eaton (9-6), making his first start against his former team, gave up just two runs on seven hits with three walks and six strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.

Eaton spent the first six seasons of his career in San Diego. He played last year with Texas before the Phillies signed him prior to the start of this season.

Adrian Gonzalez drove in a pair of runs and Russell Branyan also drove in a run for the Padres, who had won four of five coming into the contest.

Justin Germano (6-4) got the loss as he was charged with four runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Trailing 2-1 heading into the fourth, the Phillies took the lead in the frame with three runs. Utley led off the inning with a walk, Howard followed with a single and Aaron Rowand then blasted a double to score Utley. Pat Burrell followed with a groundout to score Howard for the lead. Eaton later helped his cause with a single to center to score Rowand for a 4-2 advantage.

Philadelphia padded its lead in the seventh as Utley hit a two-out, two-run home run to straightaway center for a 6-2 lead.

San Diego had two men on base with one out in the seventh, but Ryan Madson struck out Michael Barrett and Branyan to end the inning.

The Phillies plated another run in the eighth as Jimmy Rollins' single scored Michael Bourn, but the Padres countered with a run in the bottom of the inning as Gonzalez's sac fly plated Geoff Blum to make it a 7-3 game.

Antonio Alfonseca, who got the final out of the eighth inning, closed out the ninth inning to pick up his seventh save of the season.

The Phillies grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first as Victorino hit a one-out single, stole second, and after Utley struck out, crossed the plate on a Howard single.

The Padres got the run back in the second as Khalil Greene led off with a double and later scored on a single from Branyan.

San Diego took a 2-1 lead in the third as Brian Giles led off with a walk, moved to third on a single from Milton Bradley and came home on a double from Gonzalez. Eaton limited the damage to just the one run as he got Mike Cameron to fly out to shallow right and then struck out Greene and Barrett to end the inning.

Game Notes

The Phillies have won 13 of their last 18 games against the Padres...Burrell had a 10-game hitting streak stopped...The Phillies are 37-8 this season when leading after six innings...It was Germano's fourth loss in his last five decisions...San Diego stranded 15 runners.

Wwwthesimpsons Baseball Betting News

<< Bedard, Orioles fan A's
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Major league strikeout leader Erik Bedard fanned 11 batters over seven one-hit innings, as the Baltimore Orioles routed the Oakland Athletics, 6-1, in the opener of a three-game series at McAfee Coliseu

<< Blake survives to reach Countrywide semifinals
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second seed James Blake edged fellow published author and countryman Vincent Spadea 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 to advance to the semifinals of the Countrywide Classic on Friday. Blake, whose autobiography "

<< Oakland's Swisher exits early
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oakland center fielder Nick Swisher left Friday's 6-1 loss against Baltimore in the seventh inning with a sprained right shoulder. Swisher, who is hitting .256 with 46 RBI this season, got hurt attempting a

<< Beckett wins No. 13, Lugo slams BoSox over ChiSox
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Beckett struck out 10 over six innings and Boston drilled the Chicago White Sox, 10-3 in a game that saw a home run call blown, leading to the ejection of Red Sox manager Terry Francona in the first inning.

<< Cook pitches Rockies past Nats
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aaron Cook tossed seven scoreless innings, and Todd Helton drove in two runs as the Colorado Rockies beat the Washington Nationals, 3-1, in the second of four games at RFK Stadium. Cook (6-6) had a stro

Beltran, Mets hold off Dodgers >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Beltran homered for the second straight game and the New York Mets scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning on a throwing error in a 4-1 triumph over the Los Angeles Dodgers. David Wr

Bonds may sit as Giants resume set with Brewers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With the MLB commissioner looking on, Barry Bonds will again try to inch closer to Hank Aaron's all-time home run record this afternoon when the San Francisco Giants play the middle portion of their three-game series with the

Heads up: Penny goes for 12th win as Dodgers take on Mets >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brad Penny will try for his 12th win of the season this afternoon when the Los Angeles Dodgers continue their four-game series with the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium. Penny has been outstanding so far this year, posting

Padres set to honor Gwynn, battle Phils >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A battle between 44-year-old left-handers is on tap for tonight as Jamie Moyer and the Philadelphia Phillies play the third of four straight games against David Wells and the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. The matchup of

Pirates try to stop skid at seven games against Astros >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Southpaw Wandy Rodriguez will try to get back on a winning track tonight when the Houston Astros visit PNC Park in game two of a three- game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates. A 28-year-old Dominican, Rodriguez had won co

Sportsbook Betting Lines

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.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

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.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.