Mets take rubber contest of series with Nats
Baseball Betting Lines
09/08/2010 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Evans' pinch-hit double in the seventh inning drove in the winning run as New York upended Washington, 3-2, to capture the rubber match of a three-game set.
Luis Hernandez went 2-for-4 with an RBI and Carlos Beltran knocked in the other run for the Mets, who won a series deciding game on the road for the first in eight tries time this season.
R.A. Dickey (10-6) gave up a pair of runs on five hits while striking out one over six innings to grab the win, while four different relievers combined to blank the Nationals over the last three frames, including Hisanori Takahashi, who earned his fifth save by retiring the side in order in the ninth.
Livan Hernandez (9-11) was charged with the loss after allowing three runs on six hits while walking two and fanning four over 6 1/3 innings for the Nats, who have lost 10 of their last 13 rubber games.
Wilson Ramos' first major league home run accounted for the Washington offense.
The Mets broke through first with a pair of runs in the third. Dickey singled with one out, moved to second on an Angel Pagan single and scored when Hernandez followed with a double. Beltran then brought Pagan home with a sacrifice fly.
Washington got the game tied in the fifth when Michael Morse singled with one out and scored when Ramos belted his long ball to straightaway center with two down.
The Nats loaded the bases in the sixth with one out on two singles and a hit batter, but Roger Bernadina fouled out to third and Morse grounded out to end the frame.
Josh Thole then led off the decisive seventh with a walk and moved to second base on a Ruben Tejada sacrifice bunt that also brought an end to Hernandez's outing with left-handed swinging pinch-hitter Lucas Duda looming on deck.
Washington skipper Jim Riggleman countered with southpaw Sean Burnett and Mets manager Jerry Manuel then called on the righty-swinging Evans, who made the strategy pay off with a broken bat double down the first base line by that put New York back in front to stay.
The Nationals had just one base runner over the final three innings.
Game Notes
New York finished its 10-game road trip with four wins...The Mets open a 10- game homestand Friday against Philadelphia...Dickey beat the Nats for the first time in five games, including four starts...The Mets are 59-4 when leading after seven innings...Washington catcher Ivan Rodriguez was scratched from the lineup shortly before game time as he was feeling ill...Hernandez is 12-15 in 36 career starts against the Mets and has lost six of his last eight decisions to them...Washington is 11-6-2 in home series since April 23...The Nats are 10-11 in rubber games this season.
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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.”
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