Astros swarm Padres; bees delay game
Baseball Betting Lines
07/02/2009 -
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wandy Rodriguez threw seven strong innings to
help the Houston Astros take a 7-2 win over the San Diego Padres in an unusual
finale of a four-game set.
Rodriguez (7-6) gave up just one run on seven hits with two walks and five
strikeouts for the Astros, who have won six of their last eight. Geoff Blum
hit a three-run home run and drove in four while Lance Berkman scored three
times and drove in one in the win.
Scott Hairston and Everth Cabrera each drove a run while Kevin Correia (5-6)
was tagged for all six runs on eight hits with three walks and three
strikeouts over five innings of action for the Padres, who have dropped six of
the last nine games.
What made this game stand out was a delay in the top of the ninth due to a
swarm of bees.
With Miguel Tejada at the plate with two outs in the frame, Padres left
fielder Kyle Blanks began walking toward the infield as the bees became thick
in the air.
The rest of the players soon left the field as the game went into a delay
until a beekeeper arrived at the park.
The swarm eventually centered around a ballgirl's jacket on a chair near the
stands and fans were evacuated from several sections near the swarm.
When the beekeeper arrived, he sprayed down the jacket and, after a 52-minute
delay, the game resumed.
Houston jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Michael Bourn led off
with a single and Berkman later drew a walk. A single from Carlos Lee loaded
the bases and Blum followed with an RBI single. Hunter Pence then grounded
into a fielder's choice that saw Berkman score.
In the third, the Astros made it a 3-0 game as a single from Lee scored
Berkman, who had doubled prior to Lee's at-bat.
San Diego had a golden opportunity to score in the third as the team had the
bases loaded with no outs. However, Adrian Gonzalez hit into a fielder's
choice that saw Correia forced out at home and Kevin Kouzmanoff then hit into
a double play.
Houston padded its lead in the fifth as Tejada led off with a single, Berkman
later walked and Blum smacked a 2-1 pitch into the left field stands for a 6-0
advantage.
The Padres finally got on the board in the fifth as Cabrera hit a two-out
single and Hairston followed with a double to center to score Cabrera.
San Diego had men on first and third with no outs in the eighth, but
Kouzmanoff struck out and Blanks hit into a double play to end the inning.
The game then went into a delay due to the bees, but when it resumed Berkman
hit an RBI double to left that scored Bourn for a 7-1 lead.
Cabrera hit into a fielder's choice to plate Edgar Gonzalez in the bottom of
the ninth.
Game Notes
The Padres welcome the Dodgers to San Diego for a three-game set starting on
Friday...Houston begins a three-game series in San Francisco on Friday...The
Astros took six of seven against the Padres in the season series...San Diego
went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine men on base.
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With Miguel Tejada at the plate w
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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.
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.”
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