Crawford's HR carries Rays to sweep of Angels

Baseball Betting Lines

05/11/2008 - St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carl Crawford blasted the go-ahead three-run homer in the sixth inning, and the Tampa Bay Rays used 15 hits to beat the Angels, 8-5, completing a three-game weekend sweep.

Crawford had three hits and stole two bases, while Akinori Iwamura went 3-for-5 and scored twice for the Rays. B.J. Upton added three hits, scoring three times.

Cliff Floyd had two RBI in his first action since coming off the disabled list on Friday. Rays starter Andy Sonnanstine went five innings, surrendering five runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out three.

J.P. Howell (2-0) came on to pitch three strong innings, retiring seven straight and nine of 10 to secure the win. Tampa Bay extended its franchise- record nine-game winning streak at home and has won four straight overall. Troy Percival came on in the ninth to record his ninth save of the season.

"That's just the beginning hopefully," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "We feel pretty good about ourselves right now. I believe we're capable of playing this way consistently."

Torii Hunter had three hits and drove in two runs for the Angels. Garret Anderson had two hits and two RBI and Vladimir Guerrero added two hits and knocked in a run in defeat.

Los Angeles starter Ervin Santana lasted 5 2/3 innings, allowing five runs on nine hits and one walk. He did strike out seven and left with a one-run lead, but remained at 6-0 on the season.

"Ervin started off a little slow, picked it up, and actually got into a pretty good rhythm," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "I thought he had to work hard to get out of some innings but he settled in and gave us a chance to win."

The Angels have dropped four straight, their longest slide since dropping six in a row, April 12-18, 2007.

Tampa Bay erased the Halo's 5-4 lead with a four-run sixth off Justin Speier (0-3).

Dioner Navarro led off with a single, but Santana retired the next two batters before being lifted in favor of Speier. Iwamura roped a double to left-center, but Navarro had to be held at third. Crawford then gave an offering a ride to the right-field seats, making it 7-5. Upton followed with a double off the center-field wall and Speier uncorked consecutive wild pitches to bring in Tampa Bay's eighth run.

The Rays jumped on Santana, getting runs in the first for the second consecutive day. Upton singled in a run, while Evan Longoria lofted a sacrifice fly, and Floyd's base hit drove in Upton.

The Angels, who had been blanked by consecutive 2-0 finals in the first two outings, broke out of their series slump in the third scoring three runs to tie the game. Jeff Mathis walked and Sean Rodriguez singled to start the inning. After two fly ball outs, Guerrero, Anderson and Hunter collected RBI base-hits.

The Rays wasted no time in regaining the lead at 5-4, posting a run in the bottom half on Floyd's second single of the day, plating Upton who led off with a base hit.

Los Angeles continued to hit in the fifth getting another two runs to take the lead. Erick Aybar started with a one-out single and Guerrero followed with a double to left. Anderson singled to right plating Aybar. but right fielder Gabe Gross gunned down Guerrero trying to score for the second out. Hunter then smoked a first-pitch fastball to the gap in right-center for a triple, scoring Anderson.

Game Notes

Los Angeles' runs in the third snapped a 25-inning scoreless streak for Rays starting pitching and a 33-inning streak for Tampa Bay hurlers at home...Los Angeles opens a seven-game homestand against the Chicago White Sox on Monday after finishing a six-game road swing at 2-4...The Rays are off to their best start in club history at 21-16...Tampa continues its homestand, opening a four-game series with the New York Yankees on Monday...Iwamura extended his nine-game hit streak for Tampa.

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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:

To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.








Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com

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