Pedroia lifts Red Sox over Dodgers

Baseball Betting Lines

06/19/2010 - Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dustin Pedroia drove in the game-winning run with a single in the bottom of the ninth inning, as the Boston Red Sox edged the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4, in the second installment of a three-game interleague series at Fenway Park.

Victor Martinez and Kevin Youkilis each homered for the Red Sox, who won 10-6 in the series opener and have won five in a row overall.

Starter Tim Wakefield went 6 1/3 frames, allowing four runs -- three earned -- on five hits with six strikeouts. Jonathan Papelbon (2-3) worked a scoreless ninth to pick up the win.

Manny Ramirez went 2-for-4 with a solo homer and two runs scored against his former club. Garret Anderson had three hits, scored a run, and knocked in a run for the Dodgers, who have dropped three straight and six of eight overall.

Vicente Padilla allowed four runs on five hits in a 5 1/3-inning start. He was activated from the 15-day disabled list prior to the game.

With the score tied at four in the bottom of the ninth, Ronald Belisario (1-1) took over for Los Angeles. Bill Hall led off with a single, but was thrown out at second on Daniel Nava's bunt. Marco Scutaro walked two batters later to put men on first and second with two outs. Jonathan Broxton came in from the bullpen and Pedroia laced a 1-2 fastball into right field to end the game.

The Dodgers drew first blood with a run in the top of the second. Ramirez singled, stole second, and scored on Anderson's base hit.

Boston responded with a run in the home half to tie things up. Martinez walked and Hall singled to put men on first and second with two outs and Nava hit an RBI double.

The Red Sox plated two runs in the fourth to go in front. Youkilis singled and came around to score on Martinez's homer for a 3-1 lead.

LA cut the gap to one on Ramirez's solo shot over the Green Monster in the top of the sixth. Boston, though, got a solo homer from Youkilis in the home half to make it a 4-2 game.

The Dodgers scored twice in the seventh to make it a 4-4 game. Anderson led off with a double and crossed the plate two batters later on Blake DeWitt's two-bagger. DeWitt advanced to third on right fielder Hall's fielding error and scored when Matt Kemp lofted a fly ball to right off Manny Delcarmen.

LA stranded a runner on third in the top of the ninth.

Game Notes

Boston took two of three from the Dodgers the last time these teams met back in 2004...The Red Sox committed a season-high four errors...Ramirez stole his first base since August 29, 2008. He also recorded his 142nd career homer at Fenway Park...Red Sox right fielder J.D. Drew (right hamstring) missed the game...The Dodgers placed pitcher Carlos Monasterios on the 15-day disabled list to make room for Padilla...Boston recalled pitcher Robert Manuel from Triple-A Pawtucket and optioned pitcher Felix Doubront to Pawtucket...The Red Sox improved to 7-1 on a nine-game homestand...Adrian Beltre and Pedroia each extended their hitting streaks to nine games...Boston is 25-15 in Beantown this season...Saturday's start was Wakefield's 200th at Fenway Park, tying Roger Clemens for the most-ever at the storied venue.

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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.