Nationals attempt to continue pleasant stay in Houston

Baseball Betting Lines

08/22/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Nationals will try to stay on the winning track tonight, when they continue a four-game series against the Houston Astros from Minute Maid Park.

The Nats ended a four-game losing streak with Monday's 7-0 victory in the series opener, then recorded an 11-6 triumph on Tuesday. Ryan Zimmerman ended a double shy of hitting for the cycle and drove in four runs, while Nook Logan ended a career-best 5-for-6 with three RBI and two runs scored.

Washington starter Joel Hanrahan picked up his third win in four starts, giving up three runs on seven hits in five innings to help the Nats to a 2-0 mark on their current 10-game trek.

Mike Bacsik is back in the rotation for the Nationals after a brief stint in the bullpen and will take on Houston this evening. Bacsik is 5-6 with a 4.61 ERA in 18 games (16 starts) this season.

Bacsik is 3-0 over his previous eight appearances, including four straight no decisions. In 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief on Thursday against the New York Mets, Bacsik struck out one batter and walked another in a 6-2 loss.

The left-hander is 0-0 with a 1.17 ERA in two career games (one start) against the Astros. Bacsik faced Houston on July 16 and did not factor in the outcome. He yielded two runs -- one earned -- through 5 2/3 innings of a 4-3 Washington victory.

Taking the mound for the Astros this evening will be Woody Williams, who is 7-12 with a 4.92 ERA in 27 games (26 starts) this season.

Williams is 2-0 in his previous five trips to the hill and recorded the win his last time out on Friday at San Diego. He held the Padres to just one run and six hits through seven innings of a 3-1 triumph at Petco Park.

The veteran righty is 2-3 with a 3.89 earned run average in six career starts against Washington. Williams lost to the Nationals on July 16 of this season at RFK Stadium, yielding four runs in six frames of work.

Houston has dropped three in a row and five of seven games after last night's setback. Craig Biggio had three hits, including a homer, drove in four runs and scored twice for Houston.

Astros rookie center fielder Hunter Pence was activated from the disabled list prior to the game and went 1-for-6 with an RBI.

Washington took two of three games against Houston from July 16-18 at RFK Stadium and has won seven of the last eight meetings between the teams.

Wwnytimes Baseball Betting News


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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.

MySportsbook.com Favors Fighting Irish to win College Football betting odds

According to odds makers at MySportsbook.com, on January 8, the Fighting Irish faithful may be toasting their 14th national title in Arizona – Notre Dame’s first national championship in close to 20 years.

Although MySportsbook.com has listed Notre Dame as the 5-1 favorite to win thecollege football College Football betting, fans in Columbus do not need to cancel their tickets to Glendale just yet.  The Ohio State Buckeyes, listed right behind the Irish at 7-1, are also heavy favorites to win college football’s most coveted prize, while West Virginia, USC and the 2007 National Champion Texas Longhorns - all listed at 8-1 – are strong contenders as well.

MySportsbook.com has also posted gambling odds on the conference championships for the ACC, Big 12 and SEC.  In the ACC – it could be anyone’s title, particularly for the two schools from the Sunshine State.  Florida State and Miami, both listed at 2-1, are favored to win the ACC Championship Game odds, with the ‘Noles hoping to finish in the nation’s top 10 for the first time in five years, and the ‘Canes looking to avenge their 10-7 loss against FSU in last year’s ACC Championship betting.

Moving west to the Big 12, MySportsbook.com has betting lines listing Texas as 7-5 favorites to repeat as conference champions, even though the Longhorns lost their national championship-winning quarterback Vince Young to the NFL.  In the south, the Auburn Tigers – led by Heisman-hopeful senior running back Kenny Irons – have been given the best odds to win the SEC Championship odds at 5-2.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Visa needs.


ODDS TO WIN THE BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Notre Dame
Ohio State
West Virginia
Texas
USC
Florida
California
Auburn
Oklahoma
Iowa
Louisville
Florida State
Michigan
Miami (FL)
LSU
Penn State
Virginia Tech
Nebraska
Tennessee
Georgia
Arizona State
Oregon
Clemson
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Alabama
Arkansas
Boston College
Michigan State
Maryland
South Carolina
Colorado
Purdue
Georgia Tech
TCU
UCLA
Arizona
Pittsburgh
Iowa State
Wisconsin
North Carolina State
Virginia
North Carolina
Fresno State
Hawaii
Northwestern
BYU
Oregon State
UNLV
Field (Any Other Team)
5-1
7-1
8-1
8-1
8-1
12-1
15-1
15-1
18-1
20-1
20-1
20-1
20-1
20-1
25-1
40-1
40-1
50-1
60-1
60-1
60-1
70-1
70-1
100-1
100-1
100-1
100-1
100-1
150-1
200-1
200-1
200-1
200-1
200-1
250-1
250-1
300-1
300-1
300-1
300-1
300-1
300-1
400-1
500-1
500-1
500-1
500-1
1000-1
1000-1
40-1



ODDS TO WIN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Miami (FL)
Florida State
Virginia Tech
Clemson
Georgia Tech
Boston College
Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina State
North Carolina
Wake Forest
Duke
2-1
2-1
3-1
7-1
15-1
15-1
15-1
30-1
30-1
30-1
50-1
500-1



ODDS TO WIN BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Texas
Oklahoma
Nebraska
Texas Tech
Colorado
Iowa State
Texas A&M
Kansas State
Missouri
Kansas
Baylor
Oklahoma State
7-5
9-5
9-2
12-1
14-1
15-1
15-1
30-1
30-1
35-1
100-1
100-1



ODDS TO WIN SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Auburn
Florida
LSU
Georgia
Tennessee
Arkansas
Alabama
Mississippi
South Carolina
Mississippi State
Kentucky
Vanderbilt
5-2
11-4
4-1
6-1
7-1
7-1
9-1
20-1
28-1
75-1
100-1
300-1

For complete NCAA football odds please visit Mysportsbook.com.