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06/18/2010 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Edwin Encarnacion blasted the game-winning home run leading off the bottom of the eighth inning to push Toronto past San Francisco, 3-2, in the opener of a three-game interleague set at Rogers Centre.
Encarnacion had two of Toronto's four hits and drove in all three runs, as the Blue Jays won their second straight after dropping seven out of nine. Eight of Encarnacion's last 16 hits have been home runs since he came off the disabled list May 18.
Scott Downs (2-5) earned the win after tossing a perfect eighth inning for Toronto, which won for just a third time in 10 all-time meetings with San Francisco. Kevin Gregg retired all three hitters he faced, with a little help from Encarnacion, who made a diving stop of a sharply hit Buster Posey ground ball to end the game, to nail down his 17th save.
Barry Zito (7-3) went the distance and was the hard-luck loser after issuing one walk and fanning five as the Giants fell for only a second time in their last seven games.
Zito had retired the Blue Jays in order in the sixth and seventh innings before Encarnacion belted his first pitch of the eighth into left field for his ninth home run of the season and first since June 4.
The Giants mustered the first run of the game in the first inning when Pablo Sandoval walked with two outs and the bases loaded. Brandon Morrow avoided further trouble when Alex Gonzalez made a sliding grab of a Posey grounder and turned it into a force at second base.
Zito kept the Jays hitless through four innings before Gonzalez led off the fifth with an infield single and Jose Bautista was hit by a pitch to put two runners on. Bautista then beat Sandoval's throw to second base on a Lyle Overbay ground ball to load the bases for Encarnacion, who looped a broken bat, two-run single to left to give Toronto a 2-1 lead.
The southpaw was able to work out of further trouble when Jose Molina bunted into a force at third and Fred Lewis bounced into an inning-ending double play.
Aubrey Huff opened the sixth with a double but was thrown out trying to score on a Pat Burrell single. Juan Uribe, who had been hit by a pitch, advanced to third base on the play and came into score the tying run on Sandoval's groundout.
Morrow was not involved in the decision in his first career meeting with the Giants after yielding a pair of runs on five hits over six frames. He walked three and fanned four and was followed by Jason Frasor, who struck out the side in order in the seventh.
Game Notes
Zito fell to 5-3 in 11 career starts against Toronto as he faced the Blue Jays for the first time since July 29, 2006 as a member of the Athletics...He has allowed seven home runs over his last seven starts after not giving up a long ball in his first seven turns...It was the first complete game of the year for Zito and the 11th of his career. The Blue Jays have outhomered their opponents at home 42-7 since April 29...Encarnacion had been mired in a 2-for-26 slump entering the game...Bautista was 0-for-2 and is just 2 for his last 31...Toronto has slugged a major league-leading 104 homers...The Giants are winless in four interleague road games this season and 5-5 in interleague action overall, while the Jays are 4-6 in interleague play this year...San Francisco is 4-22 when scoring fewer than four runs.
<< Smith remains in front at Fort Smith Classic
Fort Smith, AR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nathan J. Smith managed only an even-par 70
on Friday, but it was enough for him to keep his lead after two rounds of the
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Smith completed 36 holes at nine-u
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Sonoma, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kasey Kahne will start on the pole for Sunday's
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Kahne, who won his first road-course race in the Sprint Cup Ser
<< Steinhauer grabs early lead in New Jersey
Galloway, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sherri Steinhauer fired a seven-under 64
Friday to grab a one-stroke lead after the opening round of the ShopRite LPGA
Classic.
Steinhauer, an eight-time winner on the LPGA Tour, shared second place in
<< Saints' Moore signs tender
Metaire, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Saints announced Friday wide receiver
Lance Moore has signed his one-year qualifying offer.
Moore caught 14 passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns in an injury-plagued
year for the defending Sup
Strasburg's record overshadows White Sox win over Nats >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Stephen Strasburg fanned 10 more batters and
set a major league record in the process, but an infield single by Alex Rios
scored Mark Kotsay with the go-ahead run in the 11th inning as the Chicago
White S
Cleveland hands Pittsburgh 12th straight loss >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Santana had two hits and knocked in
what proved to be the game-winning run in a four-run seventh, and the
Cleveland Indians snapped their losing streak while extending the Pirates'
to 12 w
Tigers win seventh straight; Arizona loses 14th in a row on road >>
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brandon Inge's RBI triple in the eighth helped
the Detroit Tigers take a 7-5 win over Arizona, sending the Diamondbacks to
their franchise-record 14th straight road loss.
Magglio Ordonez hit a two-run hom
Stanton's slam sets tone as Marlins top Rays >>
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Stanton hit a grand slam -- the first home
run of his career -- to lead the Florida Marlins to a 7-4 win over the Tampa
Bay Rays in the opener of this three-game series.
Stanton, the top prospect who was
While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.
Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.
The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.
What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.
These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.
College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.
Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.
Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.
Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.
I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.
Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.
It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.
As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.
Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?
I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.
There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.
Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.
For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.
A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.
The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.
Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.
So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.
Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.
“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.
Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.
“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.
It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.
Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.
The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.
“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.
“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”
Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.
The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.
“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”
Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?
“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.
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