Ramirez's homer lifts Cubs over Phils

Baseball Betting Lines

07/16/2010 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aramis Ramirez continued his hot streak with a game-winning solo home run in the eighth inning, and the Chicago Cubs edged the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3, in the second of four games at Wrigley Field.

Ramirez, who was hitting just .165 following a game on June 25, has raised his batting average to .220 by going 24-for-64 in his last 16 games, including 3- for-4 on Friday. Marlon Byrd added a two-run homer for the Cubs, who won consecutive home games for the first time since June 16-17.

Ted Lilly was solid in the start, yielding three runs, four hits and a walk while fanning 10 over seven innings. Sean Marshall (6-2) earned the win for one perfect inning, and Carlos Marmol notched his 17th save.

Ryan Howard hit a two-run homer for the Phillies, who have dropped two straight following a four-game win streak to end the first half of the season. Shane Victorino also homered in defeat.

Joe Blanton allowed three runs on five hits and three walks in seven innings. Ryan Madson (2-1) was dealt the loss for giving up Ramirez's home run.

With Madson on the mound in the eighth, the first two Cubs batters were retired. Ramirez, however, hammered a 3-2 belt-high pitch into the left-field bleachers for a 4-3 Chicago advantage.

Marmol came in and struck out Jayson Werth, Howard and Francisco in succession to end the game.

The first three innings moved rather quickly, with the teams producing just one baserunner -- a Byrd one-out single for Chicago in the second. He was erased on a subsequent Alfonso Soriano double play groundout.

The Phillies finally cracked the scoreboard in the fourth on Victorino's one- out blast into the left-field bleachers, but the Cubs tied the game in the fifth.

Ramirez led off with a single, and Soriano worked a one-out walk. After both runners moved up on a groundout, Geovany Soto was intentionally walked to get to Lilly, who went down in the count 0-2 after a swinging strike. Blanton, though, issued three straight balls, then Lilly fought off a pitch down the middle. Blanton's next pitch was just high, walking Lilly and forcing in Ramirez for a 1-1 score.

Both teams blasted a two-out, two-run homer in the sixth -- Howard for the Phillies and Byrd for the Cubs -- to keep the game tied, 3-3, heading to the seventh.

Chicago nearly went ahead in the seventh, as Starlin Castro led off with a single and moved to second on an errant pickoff throw. Soto's fly ball sent Castro to third with one out, but pinch-hitter Kosuke Fukudome and Ryan Theriot both struck out to end the threat.

Game Notes

The Cubs lead the season series, 3-1...Blanton struck out eight...Howard homered in back-to-back games for the third time this season, and he has 12 RBI in eight games...Victorino hit his 15th home run, setting a new career high.

Snadbox Baseball Betting News

<< Mandzukic joins Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wolfsburg have wrapped up the signing of Croatia striker Mario Mandzukic on a four-year contract from Dinamo Zagreb. The 24-year-old joins the Bundesliga club as a potential replacement for Edin Dzeko,

<< Wizards want more magic against Rapids
Commerce City, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kansas City Wizards forward Teal Bunbury called Wednesday's 1-0 victory at the Columbus Crew "huge," and hopes the team can build on the result Saturday night at the Colorado Rapids. K.C. (4-8-3) won for

<< Galaxy aims to overcome "12th man" at United
Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena has plenty of fond memories from RFK Stadium, where he brings his team to face D.C. United on Sunday. Arena guided United to three successive MLS Cup final appear

<< NFL suspends Packers' Jolly indefinitely
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The National Football League has suspended Packers' defensive lineman Johnny Jolly indefinitely without pay for violating the league's Policy and Program for Substances of Abuse. Jolly's suspension takes e

<< Bulls add another former Utah player in Brewer
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bulls have reportedly agreed to a three-year deal with guard Ronnie Brewer. According to a report on the team's website, the Bulls made the move for Brewer after the Magic matched the team

Top seed Pennetta reaches Palermo semis >>
Palermo, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Flavia Pennetta defeated Spanish qualifier Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals at the $220,000 Palermo International tennis tournament. Pennetta of Italy will next battle eighth

Wind blows away Oosthuizen's challengers >>
St. Andrews, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Louis Oosthuizen got the luck of the draw on Friday at the British Open Championship. The South African fired a five-under 67 despite intermittent rain and gusty winds to take a five-stroke lead with

Kim, McDaniel to meet in Publinx final >>
Greensboro, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lion Kim and David McDaniel will meet in the final of the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship after both players squeezed out a pair of 1-up victories on Friday. Indeed, all six matches contested

Volquez to make season debut for Reds on Saturday >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cincinnati Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez is scheduled to make his season debut on Saturday against the Rockies. Volquez, who has been out because of both Tommy John surgery and a 50-game suspension for

Blues extend Hensick's contract >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Blues have signed forward T.J. Hensick to a one-year contract extension. Hensick was picked up in a trade with Colorado in June and saw time in just seven NHL contests in 2009-10, not

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.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.