Rockies hope to stay hot versus Reds

Baseball Betting Lines

09/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rockies have put together a couple of strong Septembers over the past few years. They've been even more successful in recent meetings with the Cincinnati Reds at Coors Field.

Colorado shoots for an eighth consecutive win over the Reds in Denver, as well as a fifth straight victory overall, when the resurgent Rockies continue a key four-game series with first-place Cincinnati tonight.

The Rockies, who won 14 of their final 15 regular-season tests to claim the National League's Wild Card berth in 2007 and went 10-1 to begin September of last season en route to another postseason trip, seem to be at it again. Monday's 10-5 decision over the Reds was Colorado's 10th victory in its past 15 tilts and kept Jim Tracy's squad 4 1/2 games behind front-running San Diego in the NL West race.

"We feel like we control our own destiny," said Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki after Monday's result. "We play the guys in front of us enough. If we play well and win the series each and every time we're going to move on."

Tulowitzki went 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBI in the opener to help ace Ubaldo Jimenez earn his 18th win of the season, while teammate Carlos Gonzalez kept up his hot hitting with a 3-for-5, two-RBI performance at the plate. The standout outfielder is batting a sensational .536 (30-for-56) with six homers and 18 runs driven in over a career-high 14-game hitting streak that has raised his season average to an NL-best .340.

Jimenez (18-6) became the first NL hurler to reach the 18-win mark on the year despite allowing four runs and walking six batters over six shaky innings. The 2010 All-Star still outpitched counterpart Aaron Harang, who lasted just 2 1/3 innings for Cincinnati and was roughed up for four runs on four hits and walked three.

Bill Bray (1-2) took the loss for the Reds after surrendering three runs, including Tulowitzki's tie-breaking solo homer in the bottom of the fifth, in 1 2/3 innings of relief.

Jonny Gomes paced Cincinnati offensively by going 2-for-5 with a two-run single, while teammate Chris Heisey finished with a pair of hits and scored twice on the afternoon.

The Reds have now dropped three of the first four contests on their current seven-game road trip and had its lead atop the NL Central brought down to six games after second-place St. Louis defeated Milwaukee on Monday.

The setback was also Cincinnati's seventh in a row at Coors Field, where the club hasn't won since August 22, 2008. Although the Reds did take two of three bouts from the Rockies in Ohio back in July, Colorado is now 16-3 in its last 19 matchups with Cincy following yesterday's verdict.

Cincinnati turns to Johnny Cueto in hopes of reversing those trends this evening. The young right-hander has put his team in position to win plenty of times this season, having compiled a 12-4 record along with a 3.41 earned run average through his 26 starts of 2010.

Cueto has been on top of his game in each of his past two outings. He held the Chicago Cubs to one run and struck out eight without a walk over eight excellent innings in a victory on August 27, then yielded just one run in six frames in a no-decision against Milwaukee this past Wednesday.

This will be Cueto's second-ever appearance against the Rockies. The first took place at Coors Field during his rookie campaign of 2008, with the now 24- year-old removed after issuing three walks and giving up an unearned run in only three innings of work.

Jhoulys Chacin gets the call for Colorado tonight and will be aiming to return to the win column following a no-decision in his latest assignment. The rookie did not factor in his club's 12-11 loss to Philadelphia on Thursday, a game in which he pitched the first 5 1/3 innings and permitted three runs, two of which were unearned.

Chacin was outstanding in each of his two starts that preceded Thursday's outcome. After fanning nine Arizona hitters over 7 2/3 shutout innings to beat the Diamondbacks on August 22, the 24-year-old limited the Los Angeles Dodgers to a run on four hits and struck out seven in seven frames to notch another victory six days later.

The native Venezuelan has pitched twice previously against Cincinnati in a relief role, including a 2 1/3-inning stint on July 17 in which he struck out four hitters in addition to giving up a solo homer to Gomes.

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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.