Walker leads 17-hit attack, Pirates finally beat Astros

Baseball Betting Lines

07/17/2010 - Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Neil Walker collected three hits, scored three times and knocked in a pair of runs as Pittsburgh pounded out 17 hits in a 12-6 win over Houston in the middle meeting of a three-game set.

Jose Tabata and Lastings Milledge each had two hits and knocked in a pair of runs, while Garrett Jones, Pedro Alvarez, Erik Kratz and Ronny Cedeno also had a pair of hits apiece to help the Pirates snap a seven-game losing streak.

Javier Lopez (2-1) earned the win by recording the final out in the fifth inning. Brendan Donnelly, Evan Meek, Joel Hanrahan and Octavio Dotel then combined to retire the final 12 Houston hitters in succession to sew up Pittsburgh's first win over Houston in eight tries this season.

Bud Norris (2-7) took the loss after being charged with seven runs -- four earned -- on nine hits while walking two and striking out four over 4 2/3 innings for Houston, which has dropped three out of five.

The Pirates, who had been scored on in the first inning in six of their last seven games, turned the tables on Houston in the first to take the early lead.

Tabata reached on a Chris Johnson throwing error with one out, moved to third base on a Walker single and scored on Jones' double to right field. Alvarez struck out before Milledge lashed a two-run single to center to cap off the three-run rally.

The lead didn't last long, as Hunter Pence led off the second inning by belting Ross Ohlendorf's second pitch of the second inning over the wall in left-center field for his 13th home run of the year.

Johnson was then hit by a pitch, moved to second on a Jason Castro single and came in to score on a double by Angel Sanchez. Norris legged out a bunt base hit to load the bases for Michael Bourn, who doubled to left to plate two runs to give the visitors their first lead at 4-3. Lance Berkman walked to reload the bases with one out and spell the end of the night for Ohlendorf.

D.J. Carrasco took over and got Carlos Lee to ground into an inning-ending double play. Ohlendorf was charged with four runs on five hits and a pair of walks, while striking out one, in the shortest start of his career.

The Buccos responded in their half of the frame with a two-run double by Tabata to center that put them back in the lead by one.

Carrasco retired the first eight batters he faced before Berkman walked with one out in the fifth and advanced to second base on a two-out single by Pence that chased the right-hander from the hill.

Lopez was called on by skipper John Russell but the move backfired when Johnson doubled into the alley in left-center to drive in both runners and put the Astros back in front, 6-5. Castro then lined out to end the inning.

The see-saw affair tilted back in favor of the Pirates for good in the bottom of the inning, as Cedeno singled in the tying run with two outs and knocked Norris out of the game. Chris Sampson took over and gave up a pinch-hit single to Ryan Church that plated Erik Kratz to move the home team back on top, 7-6.

Gustavo Chacin assumed the hill for the Astros in the home sixth and gave up a one-out double to Tabata that was followed by Walker's run-scoring single. Pence misplayed the ball in right field, allowing Walker to advance to third, from where he scored on a wild pitch to push the Pirates lead to 9-6.

The home side dashed any hopes of a comeback with three runs in the eighth off Casey Daigle on RBI hits by Walker, Alvarez and Kratz, who drove in the first run of his career.

Game Notes

The Astros had held the Pirates to 15 runs in the first seven meetings before Saturday...Houston right-hander Felipe Paulino, who was scheduled to start Tuesday at Wrigley Field, instead will return to Houston to undergo an MRI on Sunday and then be examined by the Astros medical staff on Monday...He has been on the disabled list since June 21 with right shoulder tendinitis, which flared up again during a Friday workout in Pittsburgh...The Pirates, who drew better than 36,000 Saturday night, improved to 6-1 playing in front of home crowds of 30,000 or more...Kratz picked up the first two hits of his career. Alvarez has hit safely in 13 of his last 15 games...Pence extended his hitting streak to a season-high eight games.

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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.”

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