Peavy tries to win fourth straight start in finale versus Angels
Baseball Betting Lines
05/20/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - While the Chicago White Sox continue to be in a season- long funk, Jake Peavy appears as if he's put his early-year woes behind him.
The veteran pitcher will attempt to win a fourth consecutive start and help the White Sox salvage a split of a two-game series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim tonight at U.S. Cellular Field.
Peavy endured a rough month of April in which the 2007 National League Cy Young Award honoree went 0-2 with an uncharacteristic 7.85 earned run average and allowed six runs or more in three of five starts. May has been a different story for the right-hander, though, as he's gone 3-0 with a 2.31 ERA in three outings and posted an excellent 22-to-2 ratio of strikeouts to walks.
The 28-year-old has also worked seven innings or more in each of those tests and finished two outs shy of a complete game in last Saturday's victory at Kansas City. Peavy gave up four runs on seven hits and struck out five before exiting.
He was even sharper in a 7-3 besting of Toronto at U.S. Cellular Field on May 8, limiting the Blue Jays to two runs on just three hits while fanning eight without a walk.
The two-time All-Star, who's spent most of his career pitching in the NL with San Diego, has only faced the Angels once previously. That came while with the Padres on June 17, 2006, with Peavy taking a tough loss despite permitting just three runs on four hits in an eight-inning stint.
Peavy will be trying to enable his team to avenge a 3-2 defeat to the Angels in Wednesday's opener. Torii Hunter put Anaheim in front with a two-run homer in the fourth inning, and starter Joe Saunders made the lead stand by twirling 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball as the Angels halted a two-game skid.
Saunders (3-5) yielded only one run and four hits in his second consecutive outstanding performance. The left-hander had fired a four-hit shutout to beat Oakland last Friday.
"He is pitching with confidence," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Saunders. "He's got a lot of life on his ball. He pitched a terrific game."
Brian Fuentes notched his fifth save of the season despite giving up a solo homer to Paul Konerko that brought Chicago within a run.
White Sox starter John Danks (3-3) pitched well in a losing cause, surrendering three runs -- two earned -- and striking out eight Angels in a 7 2/3-inning span.
"[Danks] made one mistake and it cost us the game," said catcher A.J. Pierzynski in reference to Hunter's homer. "We played hard, we battled. It just didn't work out."
The Angels turn to Ervin Santana, who'll be aiming for back-to-back wins for the first time this season, in hopes of gaining a sweep tonight. The hard- throwing righty halted a four-start winless skid with a solid six innings of work Saturday against Oakland, holding the Athletics to three runs -- two earned -- while striking out six batters in a 12-3 Angels verdict.
Santana had posted three no-decisions and a loss following his only other victory of 2010, a complete-game four-hitter in a 3-1 defeat of Toronto on April 18.
The 2008 AL All-Star is 2-1 in three lifetime starts at U.S. Cellular Field and owns a 3-2 mark with a 4.88 ERA over nine overall meetings (eight starts) with the White Sox.
The White Sox won five of nine meetings with the Angels in 2009 and took two of three games between the teams in Chicago from August 4-6.
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What Is the Point Spread?
What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?
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.
How to Read Point Spreads
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:
- Philly wins the actual game by any amount of points
OR
- Philly loses the game by less than 7 points.
-
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.
For Those Who Like to Consider Things Mathematically
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
- Subtracting the point spread from the favorite’s score (thus the minus sign before the number) and then compare to the underdog’s score
OR
- Adding the point spread to the underdog’s score (thus the plus sign before the number) and then compare to the favorite’s score
Who Really “Won” the Super Bowl odds ?
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.
Big 12 Conference betting odds
Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State
Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.
Work left to do:
Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.
Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.
Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.