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07/18/2010 - San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tony Gwynn Jr. hit his second inside-the- park home run of the season and Yorvit Torrealba drove in four, as the San Diego Padres beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 8-5, at Petco Park.
Gwynn, who has only three home runs this season, also performed the feat June 13 at home against Seattle. It was the 18th inside-the-park homer in Padres history, and Gwynn joined his Hall-of-Fame father and Gene Richards as the only players in franchise history to have multiple inside-the-park homers.
Torrealba finished 3-for-4 with a two-run blast in the third inning. Adrian Gonzalez and Jerry Hairston Jr. also homered for San Diego, which beat Arizona by a 12-1 score Friday in the opener of this three-game series.
Clayton Richard (7-4) allowed five runs on nine hits and two walks in 6 1/3 innings for the Padres, but took the win after the San Diego bullpen allowed just one hit the rest of the way.
Rodrigo Lopez (5-8) gave up six runs on six hits and three walks in six innings, and took the loss, the Diamondbacks' ninth in their last 11 games.
It was a 4-4 game after four innings, and the Padres pulled away thanks to a pair of homers.
In the fifth with one out, Gonzalez got into a battle with Lopez and hit the ninth pitch of the at-bat -- a slider over the heart of the plate -- to center for his 20th homer of the season.
Gwynn then struck in the sixth. He hit a fly ball to shallow left field, and left fielder Rusty Ryal missed the diving catch. Gwynn raced around the bases as the ball rolled to the left field corner, and slid in safely as the throw from the outfield was off the mark.
Arizona pulled within 6-5 in the seventh inning on an RBI single by Justin Upton. That hit came off of Ryan Webb, who replaced Richard with one out and a man on first.
But San Diego tacked on two more runs in the bottom half to gain some separation. After Gonzalez walked, Chase Headley tripled, and Torrealba followed with a bunt single to make it an 8-5 game.
Luke Gregerson pitched a scoreless eighth for the Padres, and Heath Bell worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 25th save.
Torrealba's run-scoring single in the first got the Padres on the board, though a two-run single by Adam LaRoche in the third put Arizona on top. Ryal followed with an RBI base hit to make it 3-1.
Hairston began the home third with a homer, and Torrealba added a two-run shot later in the inning to put San Diego back on top, 4-3. However, Chris Young's two-out solo blast in the fourth evened the contest.
Game Notes
Young finished with three hits for Arizona, while Kelly Johnson, Upton and LaRoche each had two...Richard, who has won his last three decisions, struck out six...Lopez fanned three...The Padres lead the season series, 6-2.
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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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