Streaking Red Sox wrap set with Braves

Baseball Betting Lines

06/20/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Red Sox are back in the swing of things and will shoot for another win this evening in the finale of a three-game interleague series with the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field.

Boston has won four of its last five games and extended its lead to nine games over New York in the American League East standings after the Yankees lost to the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night.

After losing the opener of this series with Atlanta on Monday, the Red Sox bounced back with a 4-0 blanking of the Braves. Starting pitcher Josh Beckett scattered four hits over six shutout innings and added an RBI double at the plate to become the second 10-game winner in the majors. He joined LA Angels of Anaheim starter John Lackey in the double-digit win club.

David Ortiz hit his 12th homer of the season for the Red Sox, while Kevin Youkilis and Jason Varitek collected two hits apiece in the victory.

Julian Tavarez will take the hill for Boston this evening and is 4-4 with a 4.97 ERA in 12 starts. Tavarez is riding an unbeaten streak, having gone 3-0 in his last six trips to the mound.

In his previous start on June 15 against San Francisco, Tavarez hurled seven strong innings of two-run ball as the Red Sox handed the Giants a 10-2 setback at Fenway Park.

The veteran right-hander has a lot of experience against the Braves, going 4-3 with a 5.28 earned run average in 31 career appearances (3 starts).

Atlanta has lost two of its last three games and starter Tim Hudson was the culprit this time, yielding nine hits and four runs over 5 1/3 innings. He has not won a game since May 30, going 0-2 with two no-decisions over that span.

Kelly Johnson and Edgar Renteria had two hits apiece for the Braves, who are 1 1/2 games behind the New York Mets for the top spot in the NL East division. The Mets were pounded by the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.

The Braves will send Buddy Carlyle to the mound on Wednesday and he is 1-1 with a 4.44 ERA in five games (4 starts) this season.

Carlyle has recorded consecutive no-decisions and last toed the rubber on June 15 against Cleveland, allowing three runs -- two earned -- and six hits over six innings of work.

The right-hander will make his first-ever appearance against Boston.

Boston took two of three from Atlanta at Fenway Park last month and has won seven of the last nine encounters between the clubs. The Red Sox swept a three-game series in Turner Field last June.

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Sportsbooks to bet on football

Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.

He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.

"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.

He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.

Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.

Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.

Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.

Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.

With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.

Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).

And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)

The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.

While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.

Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.

One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.

Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.

What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.

That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.

MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.

"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.

"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."

So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.

In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.

MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.

The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.

Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.

MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.

To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.