Ambres' hit sends Mets past Dodgers

Baseball Betting Lines

07/23/2007 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chip Ambres hit a two-out RBI single in the 10th inning to give New York the lead, as the Mets rallied late to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4, in the finale of a four-game set.

Nomar Garciaparra's two-run homer in the sixth inning gave Los Angeles a 4-2 lead, but the Mets scored a run each in the eighth and ninth to send the game into extra innings.

Jose Reyes led off the eighth with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on Carlos Beltran's sacrifice fly to bring New York within 4-3.

Jonathan Broxton then struggled in the ninth and the Mets took advantage of a Matt Kemp error to tie the game. Carlos Delgado greeted Broxton with a single and a Broxton wild pitch allowed pinch-runner Anderson Hernandez to reach second.

After Paul Lo Duca's groundout sent Hernandez to third, Kemp dropped Shawn Green's fly ball to shallow right field, allowing to Hernandez to cross home plate and Green to reach second.

Broxton then uncorked his second wild pitch of the inning to send Green to third before recovering to striking out Ruben Gotay and pinch-hitter Ramon Castro to avoid further damage.

However, New York went right back to work in the 10th as Lastings Milledge and Beltran hit back-to-back one-out singles off D. J. Houlton (0-1). Then, after David Wright grounded into a force out to put runners, Ambres came through with a run-scoring single to left.

Los Angeles threatened in the bottom of the 10th as Juan Pierre led off with a walk before swiping second. Billy Wagner struck out Russell Martin and intentionally walked Jeff Kent before he caught Kemp looking at a called third strike.

A wild pitch moved the runners over a base, but Wagner struck out Garciaparra to nail down his 22nd save of the season.

Reyes finished 3-for-5 with a triple and two runs scored and Pedro Feliciano (2-1) pitched a scoreless inning of relief to pick up the win for the Mets, who took three of four against LA.

Rafael Furcal homered and Luis Gonzalez scored twice for the Dodgers, who have lost four of six after a five-game winning streak.

Furcal led off the game with his third homer of the season and James Loney's two-out RBI double in the fourth made it 2-0.

LA Eric starter Stults, meanwhile, retired 10 straight batters until Lo Duca led off the fifth with a single. Stults quickly erased Lo Duca with a double play groundout, but the left-hander ran into trouble in the sixth as New York tied the game.

After Mets starter Orlando Hernandez struck out, Reyes legged out his 10th triple of the year before scoring on Milledge's double.

Rudy Seanez took over for Stults and Wright's two-out RBI single made it 2-2. The Dodgers answered in the home half of the sixth as Gonzalez walked with one out and Garciaparra crushed the first pitch he saw over the left field wall.

Stults pitched 5 1/3 innings in just his third career start, yielding two runs on five hits with five strikeouts and no walks. Hernandez, on the other hand, was tagged for four runs on seven hits through six innings.

Game Notes

Stults made his first career start against the Mets last September and picked up the win after pitching six innings of one-run ball...Broxton allowed a run in a day game for the first time this season (17 1/3 innings)...Pierre went hitless in four at-bats and saw his 14-game hitting streak come to an end.

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Kurt Warner to start, Matt Leinart to watch

Despite the debate that's swirling , Kurt Warner will remain the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, coach Dennis Green said today. The Arizona Cardinals are the +7 point underdog at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com for this Sunday's game.

Green's comment came in a statement released by the team following an ESPN report that Green decided that rookie Matt Leinart would replace Warner as starter for Sunday's game at Atlanta.

"Generally talking about the starting lineup is not something we do," Green told the AP. "However, given the speculation that was out there we want to make it clear. We're disappointed after last week, but we still expect to be a playoff football team and we fully expect Kurt Warner to be the quarterback that leads us. That has not changed."

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs.

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.