08/27/2008 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tim Redding pitched six solid innings and Ryan Zimmerman hit his first home run since May 17, as the Washington Nationals held on for a 5-4 win over the reeling Los Angeles Dodgers, in the second installment of a three-game series from Nationals Park.
Redding (9-8) allowed eight hits, including three solo home runs, while issuing one walk and zero strikeouts to get the win, while Lastings Milledge, Ronnie Belliard and Jesus Flores had an RBI each for the Nationals, who won back-to-back games for the first time since taking both games of a doubleheader August 7 against Colorado.
Greg Maddux (6-11) dropped his second consecutive start since joining the Dodgers last week in a trade with the San Diego. The veteran right-hander surrendered four runs -- two earned -- on eight hits and one walk while failing to record a strikeout in 5 1/3 frames. Maddux was rocked for seven runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings of an 8-1 setback to Philadelphia last week.
Casey Blake, James Loney and Andre Ethier each hit a solo home run while Ethier also doubled twice in a 3-for-5 effort. Loney also doubled and finished 3-for-5 while Blake had a pair of RBI with as many hits.
The Dodgers have dropped a season-high six straight games and eight straight away from Chavez Ravine. They've also lost eight of their last nine overall and failed to take advantage of San Diego's three-game sweep of the NL-West leading D'Backs. The Dodgers remain three back.
The Nats came back to manufacture a run in the home half of the second and pulled ahead in the third. Milledge started the second frame with a single, stole second, moved to third and then raced home on consecutive groundouts.
Willie Harris and Cristian Guzman started the third with singles before Zimmerman grounded into a force out at second. Milledge plated a run with a fielder's choice and Belliard followed with an RBI single through the left side. Flores ended the rally with a double-play groundout.
The Nats added to their lead in the fourth as Emilio Bonifacio lined a single to center, moved to second on a sacrifice and scored when second baseman Jeff Kent misplayed a grounder from Harris and overthrew home in an attempt to get the runner.
LA made it a one-run affair in the fifth on an Ethier solo home run to right, his 17th of the season, but Zimmerman made it 5-3 with a towering solo shot to dead-center off Chan Ho Park in the seventh.
The Dodgers put runners on the corners to start the eighth when Manny Ramirez and Loney started things with back-to-back singles off Saul Rivera. Russell Martin went down swinging and Nomar Garciaparra popped weakly to second but Blake managed a broken-bat looper to left making it a 5-4 game. Rivera walked pinch-hitter Mark Sweeney to load the bases before exiting in favor of Joel Hanrahan, who retired Matt Kemp on a fly ball to left with just two pitches.
Hanrahan remained in the ninth and induced Ethier into a groundout, set down Kent on strikes and Ramirez stroked a single to center. Loney followed with a fly ball to left, ending the game and giving Hanrahan his sixth save of the season.
Loney started things in the second for LA with a leadoff homer to right, his 11th of the season. After a Martin single and a double-play ball from Garciaparra, Blake made it 2-0 with a home run over the wall in left, his 16th of the season.
Game Notes
Los Angeles swept a three-game series versus Washington at Dodger Stadium from July 25-27 and is 11-3 over its past 14 meetings with the Nationals...The Dodgers recalled third baseman Blake DeWitt from Triple-A Las Vegas Wednesday and designated utilityman Pablo Ozuna for assignment...The Dodgers fell to 0-5 on their current 10-game road trip...Friday's series finale will feature starters Clayton Kershaw (2-4) for Los Angeles and John Lannan (7-12) for Washington...Maddux's 353 career wins is still one shy of tying Roger Clemens for eighth on the career list. He has dropped three straight starts overall since winning three in a row.
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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 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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