Haren injured in debut with Angels; Big Papi powers Red Sox

Baseball Betting Lines

07/27/2010 - Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - David Ortiz homered twice and knocked in three runs, powering the Boston Red Sox past the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 6-3, in Dan Haren's injury-shortened debut with his new team.

Haren (0-1), acquired by LA on Sunday in a trade with Arizona, exited the game in the fifth inning after taking a Kevin Youkilis line drive off his right forearm. He was diagnosed with a contusion and took the loss, allowing two runs on seven hits to go with eight strikeouts and no walks in 4 2/3 innings.

His counterpart, Clay Buchholz (11-6), threw seven innings of one-run ball, yielding just five hits and a walk while fanning seven in his second start since being activated off the disabled list. Jonathan Papelbon nailed down his 23rd save of the season by recording the final four outs.

Victor Martinez (thumb) was in the starting lineup for the first time in a month and drove in a run for Boston, which had lost four of six coming in.

The Angels lost for the fifth time in six games despite home runs by Bobby Abreu and Hideki Matsui.

Boston quickly tied the game following Abreu's first-inning solo homer, as Adrian Beltre tripled leading off the second and trotted home on Martinez's single to center.

The Red Sox stranded two runners in the inning, and the Angels wasted a no- out, bases-loaded situation in the bottom half, with Buchholz getting out of the jam thanks to a pair of infield pop outs and a flyout to left off the bat of Erick Aybar.

In the third, Ortiz got just enough of a Haren offering to send it over the short porch in right for his 20th round-tripper of the year.

The Angels left two more on in the third and went down in order from the fourth through the sixth innings while their newly-acquired starter hit the showers early.

Francisco Rodriguez and Kevin Jepsen kept it a one-run game until the seventh, when Fernando Rodney served up Ortiz's blast on a payoff pitch. Youkilis, who finished 3-for-5 at the plate, singled ahead of the homer.

Scott Atchison took over for Buchholz in the eighth, and Maicer Izturis greeted the reliever with a single before coming in on Matsui's two-out home run, which was upheld upon review as a fan appeared to interfere with the ball just as it cleared the wall in right.

The Sox answered in the ninth on J.D. Drew's two-run double off rookie Michael Kohn, and Papelbon shook off a leadoff single in the ninth to seal the win.

Game Notes

It's the ninth straight year Ortiz has hit at least 20 home runs. He has three multi-home run games this season and 37 for his career...Haren, winless since June 12, went 7-8 with a 4.60 earned-run average in 21 starts with Arizona...Buchholz came back from a left hamstring injury last week and was touched for five runs on six hits and three walks over four innings versus Oakland..Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, on the DL since May 28 with a rib injury, started his rehab assignment in the Gulf Coast League on Monday...Kohn had his contract selected from Triple-A Salt Lake, and the Angels also optioned pitcher Trevor Bell to Salt Lake and recalled from rehab and optioned pitcher Matt Palmer to Salt Lake...The Red Sox swept a four-game home set over the Angels from May 3-6...In the second test of this three-game series on Tuesday, John Lackey will square off against his former team opposite Angels ace Jered Weaver.

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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.