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Headlining the NL pitching staff is a trio of Phillies starters in Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels. The San Francisco Giants will also send three starters in Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Ryan Vogelsong as well as their closer -- Brian Wilson. Also making the squad were Atlanta's Jair Jurrjens and the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw, while Heath Bell of the Padres, Tyler Clippard of the Nationals, Joel Hanrahan of the Pirates and Jonny Venters of the Braves will comprise the NL's bullpen.
Curtis Granderson of the Yankees and Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers make up the rest of the AL outfield, with Boston's David Ortiz selected as the DH.
Reigning AL Cy Young award winner Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners highlights the AL pitching staff. Other starters for the squad will be Josh Beckett of the Red Sox, Gio Gonzalez of the Athletics, David Price and James Shields of the Rays, Justin Verlander of the Tigers, Jered Weaver of the Angels and C.J. Wilson of the Rangers. The bullpen consists of the Royals' Aaron Crow, Seattle's Brandon League, Cleveland's Chris Perez, New York's Mariano Rivera and Detroit's Jose Valverde.
The National League choices are Andre Ethier of the Dodgers, Todd Helton of the Rockies, Ian Kennedy of the D-Backs, Michael Morse of the Nationals and Shane Victorino of the Phillies.
The lead lasted all of five pitches, as Thames took the first pitch he saw over the center-field wall to tie the game prior to Bautista crushing his league-leading 27th home run of the season into the second deck in left.
Jo-Jo Reyes settled down after giving up four runs in the second inning and kept it close long enough for Octavio Dotel (2-1) to earn the win in relief. Dotel recorded the final five outs to snap Toronto's three-game slide.
Jimmy Rollins had a two-run single in defeat, Philadelphia's second in seven games.
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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 online football betting 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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