Edmonds powers Brewers past Nationals

Baseball Betting Lines

07/24/2010 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jim Edmonds entered as an injury replacement for Corey Hart early in the game and went 2-for-3 with three RBI, including the go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh inning, to lift Milwaukee to a 7-5 win over Washington in the opener of a three-game series.

Alcides Escobar went 3-for-4 with a run scored for the Brewers, who scored six unanswered runs to come away with the victory following a 4-4 road trip.

Kameron Loe (1-1) was credited with the win for throwing two scoreless innings, while Sean Burnett (0-5) took the loss for serving up Edmonds' homer.

Mike Morse paced the Nationals with two homers and four RBI, as the club failed to build off back-to-back wins against Cincinnati.

Neither starter factored in the decision. Chris Narveson gave up five runs on six hits in six innings for Milwaukee, while Washington's Craig Stammen yielded three runs on five hits in five frames.

With the Brewers trailing 5-1 in the fifth, Narveson started Milwaukee's rally with a two-out RBI single and scored two batters later on an Edmonds base hit.

The hosts plated two more off Tyler Clippard an inning later, as Carlos Gomez tripled home a run and came in to make it 5-5 when Escobar doubled to the left-field wall.

Milwaukee went in front for good in the seventh, with Edmonds following Rickie Weeks' leadoff walk with a blast over the right-field wall.

"It's nice to get a chance to play, but hopefully [Hart] won't be out for too long," Edmonds said. "We have a great offense, but we struggled early. We kept plugging away and never gave up."

John Axford backed up Loe's efficient relief appearance with a 1-2-3 ninth for his 14th save of the season.

The Brewers led 1-0 when Ryan Braun's sacrifice fly to center was enough to score Hart, who tripled with one away but injured his thumb diving for a fly ball in the third inning.

Morse belted a three-run blast in the second, then went deep in the fourth after Ryan Zimmerman's run-scoring single in the third.

"That was tough. It just speaks volumes for why you play nine innings," said Nationals manager Jim Riggleman. "[The Brewers] kept at it, and their bottom of the order really came through for them."

Game Notes

It was Morse's first career multi-home run game...The Nationals have lost 10 of their last 12 visits to Miller Park since 2007... Saturday's tilt pits Washington's J.D. Martin against the Brewers' Manny Parra.

Victoriasvegas Baseball Betting News

<< Brewers' Hart leaves with injury
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Corey Hart left Friday's game against Washington due to an injured right wrist. Hart was given a rare day off on Thursday and tripled in his first at-bat in his return. How

<< Yankees rough up Royals
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robinson Cano went 2-for-4 with a three-run double in the first inning, as the New York Yankees roughed up the Kansas City Royals, 7-1, in the second installment of a four-game series. Alex Rodriguez, who h

<< Brewers broadcaster Uecker returns to booth
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Legendary broadcaster Bob Uecker made his return to the booth on Friday, when the Brewers began a three-game series versus Washington. The 75-year-old underwent successful heart surgery on April 30

<< Bruce, Reds get by reeling Astros
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jay Bruce doubled in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning to lift the Reds to a 6-4 win in the opener of a three-game series with the Astros. Joey Votto was 3-for-4 with a home run, walked and scored

<< Hornaday Jr. picks up first win of the season at ORP
Clermont, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ron Hornaday Jr. snapped a 22-race winless streak in the Camping World Truck Series with an impressive performance in Friday's AAA Insurance 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. Hornaday Jr.,

Indians extend home win streak against Rays >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fausto Carmona allowed just one unearned run in five strong innings, as the Indians extended their home dominance of the Tampa Bay Rays with a 3-1 win in a rain-shortened, seven-inning affair at Progres

Wife of former Steelers coach Cowher dies >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kaye Cowher, the wife of former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, reportedly died Friday at the age of 54. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports Kaye died in her native North Carolina after a

Diamondbacks' Kelly Johnson hits for cycle >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Kelly Johnson became the fourth player in team history to hit for the cycle Friday against the Giants. Johnson homered in the first inning and was hit by a pitc

Santana shuts down Dodgers, Mets offense awakes >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Johan Santana silenced the Dodgers for seven innings, and New York's offense awoke from a two-week slumber in a 6-1 victory at Chavez Ravine. The Mets were held to four runs or less in each of the

Red Sox edge hot-headed Mariners in Beckett's return >>
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bill Hall hit the go-ahead home run in the seventh inning and Josh Beckett pitched into the sixth in his first appearance in over two months as Boston edged the Mariners, 2-1, in the continuation of a four-ga

Albert Pujols to be This Year's Home Run Champ Says Online Sportsbook

Barry Bonds is a 50-1 long shot to be this year's home run champ odds.  The favorite to be this year's home run champ is none other than Albert Pujols, however.

Now that Barry Bonds is signed and in Giants camp, it is on to his pursuit of all of sports most prestigious records: the all-time home run mark. Bonds sits just 21 homers shy of tying Hank Aaron for the career mark at 755. Word out of Giants’ camp is that Bonds is the healthiest he has been in a few years. Bonds is just two seasons removed from his injury riddled 2005 campaign where he played in only 14 games and hit only 5 home runs. He did come back last year and had a solid season hitting .270 with 26 bombs. All eyes will be on Bonds this spring and summer not only because of his home run chase but his highly publicized steroid abuse allegations. If and when Bonds breaks the record, he surely will not get the positive attention one should for breaking a record that was once thought of as “unbreakable”. Despite Bonds decent season last year, he is just 50-1 at MySportsbook.com to lead the MLB in long balls this season.

Not surprisingly, the favorites to go deep the most times this season are Albert Pujols 5-1, Ryan Howard 6-1, David Ortiz 8-1 and Alex Rodriguez 12-1. With 49 homers, Pujols finished second in the National League behind Howard (58). Pujols is considered the favorite due to the consistent power numbers that he has posted since breaking into the league in 2001. Also one must consider the fact that he played in 16 fewer games then Howard did due to an injury. Howard smashed 58 homers in his first complete season of big league play en route to the National League MVP odds award. He silenced his critics by successfully hitting left-handed pitching. Howard also displayed the ability to use his power to the opposite field. Two attributes which should keep Howard amongst the league leaders in long balls for years to come. From the American League representatives, David Ortiz leads the field. Ortiz was second in the majors last year with 54 home runs. Except for 1999 when he only played in 10 games, Ortiz has improved on his home run numbers each year he has been in the majors (1997).

Be sure to log onto online sports betting site MySportsbook.com to check out the odds for who will lead the MLB in home runs this season. Below is just a sample of the players listed. With the highest credit card rates in the industry, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on baseball this summer.

World Series odds

Adam Dunn 15-1

Albert Pujols 5-1

Alex Rodriguez 12-1

Alfonso Soriano 15-1

Andruw Jones 25-1

Barry Bonds 50-1

Carlos Delgado 40-1

David Ortiz 8-1

Jermaine Dye 40-1

Ken Griffey Jr. 100-1

Lance Berkman 40-1

Manny Ramirez 20-1

Richie Sexson 40-1

Ryan Howard 6-1

Travis Hafner 20-1

Vladimir Guerrero 40-1

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.

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.