08/14/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals have to be frustrated with the way the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers have been playing lately. The Cardinals are four games behind the Brewers in the NL Wild Card standings, but their Central division rivals have ripped off eight straight wins to distance themselves.
St. Louis can only hope for help from other clubs in its quest for a postseason berth and will close out a four-game series this evening against the Florida Marlins at Dolphin Stadium.
The Cardinals have alternated wins and losses over their last six games, having posted a 6-4 victory over Florida on Wednesday behind a solid performance from Troy Glaus, who ended with a game-high four hits and finished with an RBI and a run scored. Jason LaRue knocked in the go-ahead runs with a double in the seventh inning and Skip Schumaker posted three hits in the win.
St. Louis starter Braden Looper earned the win with seven strong innings. The righty only allowed two runs -- one earned -- and five hits while striking out five batters and issuing just one walk. The Cardinals are 3-3 on a 10-game road trip and 34-28 away from Busch Stadium in 2008.
Todd Wellemeyer will be responsible for pitching duties for the Cards on Thursday. Wellemeyer is unbeaten over his past six starts (2-0) and is coming off a solid performance at Chicago's Wrigley Field on August 9.
The right-hander held the rival Cubs to three runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings of a 12-3 drubbing. Wellemeyer, though, has allowed two or more runs in seven of his last eight starts.
Wellemeyer, who is 3-0 with a 3.36 ERA in 11 away starts, has made three career relief appearances against Florida, going 0-0 with a 7.36 earned run average in 3 2/3 innings pitched in the series.
Florida is in the midst of a heated race in the National League East division, but haven't been able to capitalize off of division-leading Philadelphia's current woes. The Phillies have lost three in a row to fall into a tie atop the East standings with the New York Mets, while the Marlins are sitting 1 1/2 games off the pace.
In Wednesday's 6-4 loss to St. Louis, Mike Jacobs drove in two runs and both Hanley Ramirez and Jorge Cantu ended with an RBI in defeat. Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco did not factor in the decision after yielding two runs and 10 hits in six innings of work. Renyel Pinto suffered the loss after permitting two runs on two hits.
The Marlins are 1-2 on a seven-game homestand and 34-28 in South Beach this season. They will hand the ball to Scott Olsen on Thursday and hasn't fared too well over his last few outings.
Olsen has dropped three of his last four starts, with a 5.16 earned run average over that stretch. He previously pitched on August 9 against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium, allowing five runs and nine hits in five innings of his team's 8-6 defeat.
The left-hander is 1-2 with a 7.00 ERA in three career starts against the Cardinals.
St. Louis and Florida are meeting for the first time since the Cardinals won four of six meetings a year ago. St. Louis is 15-7 in this series since the 2005 season, including a 9-3 mark as the visitor.
The Cardinals have won 13 of their last 18 games at Florida.
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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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