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Fading Angels hope to stop home slide against Indians

Baseball Betting Lines

09/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With their postseason fate hanging by a thread, the LA Angels of Anaheim look to stop a four-game home losing streak tonight in the second portion of a three-game series versus the Cleveland Indians.

The Angels are 9 1/2 games behind Texas for the American League West lead, but 14 losses over the last 20 games have put a damper on their playoff hopes. In Monday's 3-2 loss in the series opener, Dan Haren allowed two runs in seven innings for the no-decision, while Fernando Rodney was dealt the loss for surrendering Shin-Soo Choo's RBI single in the top of the ninth.

"Other than the three uncharacteristic walks in the sixth, [Haren] pitched well," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "We just didn't support him."

Haren had control issues in the sixth, walking three straight after Jayson Nix's two-out double. Torii Hunter homered and Alberto Callaspo drove in a run for Anaheim, which got two hits from Hunter and Mike Napoli in defeat.

Anaheim will hand the ball to Trevor Bell this evening and he's 2-4 with a 4.85 earned run average in 24 games (6 starts) this season. Bell is coming off last Wednesday's win at Seattle and limited the hosts to two runs on nine hits through six innings.

Bell also struck out six Mariners and will face Cleveland for the second time in his career Tuesday. The right-hander defeated the Indians back on August 18 of last season, allowing three runs over 5 1/3 frames of a 5-4 win.

Meanwhile, Cleveland has alternated wins and losses over its previous six games and got back into the victory column thanks to Choo's run-scoring single in the ninth inning. Choo is batting .429 in his career at the Big A.

Shelley Duncan and Luis Valbuena were each credited with an RBI for the Indians, who got six strong innings out of young starter Carlos Carrasco. The righty held the Angels to two runs in six innings.

"I felt I had command of my fastball. I was throwing strikes," Carrasco said. "I wanted to stay in the game, but I threw too many pitches."

Jensen Lewis earned the win by getting the final out in the eighth inning and Chris Perez recorded his 19th save in the ninth.

Justin Masterson will handle pitching duties for the Tribe Tuesday, and he's only 5-12 with a 5.04 earned run average in 27 starts this season. Masterson did not record a decision the last time out in a 4-3 loss to the White Sox on August 31, despite getting reached for only one run in 7 2/3 innings.

The righty, who is just 2-7 in 14 road starts this season, will make his seventh career appearance against the Halos. In six lifetime matchups, three of which have been starts, Masterson is 1-0 with a 3.13 ERA.

The Angels took two of three at home over the Indians back in April and have won six of the last nine overall meetings.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

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.

How to Read Point Spreads

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:

  • Philly wins the actual game by any amount of points
    OR
  • Philly loses the game by less than 7 points.

  • 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.

    For Those Who Like to Consider Things Mathematically

    Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:

  • Subtracting the point spread from the favorite’s score (thus the minus sign before the number) and then compare to the underdog’s score
    OR
  • Adding the point spread to the underdog’s score (thus the plus sign before the number) and then compare to the favorite’s score

    Who Really “Won” the Super Bowl odds ?

    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.