Cardinals go for ninth win in a row, sweep of slumping Phils

Baseball Betting Lines

07/22/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Adam Wainwright will try to become just the second 15-game winner in the major leagues and remain unbeaten at home when he attempts to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to their ninth straight win and a four-game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies today at Busch Stadium.

Colorado Rockies pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez is currently tops in the bigs with 15 wins, while Wainwright is right behind with a 14-5 record and a 2.02 earned run average in 20 starts this season. He has won four straight starts to go along with a 0.31 ERA and hasn't allowed a run over his last 19 innings.

After going the distance in a win over Milwaukee on July 4, Wainwright threw eight shutout innings in a victory at Houston five days later. He then tossed six scoreless frames in a 2-0 triumph versus Los Angeles last Saturday, as he scattered five hits and struck out three batters. Wainwright pushed his 2010 Busch Stadium mark to 10-0 in 10 tries and owns a 1.31 ERA in that stretch.

The right-hander is 2-1 in seven career games (five starts) against the Phillies and did not record a decision when he faced them in a 2-1 loss in Philadelphia back on May 4. Wainwright limited Philadelphia to a run and four hits through eight innings of work.

Wainwright's staff mate Jaime Garcia picked up his ninth win of the season last night by holding the slumping Phillies to a run and four hits with six strikeouts through seven innings. Garcia (9-4), Wainwright and Chris Carpenter are a combined 39-21 so far this season.

"[Garcia] was aggressive. He didn't really get behind the count too often," said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.

Matt Holliday homered and Felipe Lopez drove in two runs for the National League Central-leading Cardinals, who have won eight straight and will try for nine consecutive wins for the first time since the 2004 campaign. St. Louis, which is 1 1/2 games ahead of Cincinnati, hasn't swept the Phillies in four games at home since Aug. 4-7, 1986.

The last time St. Louis tasted defeat was July 10 at Houston. It will hit the road for six games against the Cubs and Mets after this afternoon's contest.

Philadelphia has dropped four in a row and fell to 1-6 on an eight-game road trip following last night's loss. A lack of runs and poor pitching has hampered the Phillies lately, and they could make a move for a pitcher with the trade deadline looming.

In Wednesday's four-run loss in the Gateway City, Joe Blanton fell to 3-6 on the season after he surrendered five runs -- three earned -- and seven hits in seven innings of work. Ryan Howard belted his 22nd home run of the season in the fifth inning to account for Philadelphia's scoring.

"What can I say?" Phils manager Charlie Manuel said on the team's site. "We come out here about every day and we do the same thing. We haven't been scoring runs. I've been giving everybody in that locker room a chance, I feel like. If you can hit, please do. What the hell? That's kind of how I look at it. That's not taking no shot at one guy. That's covering a lot of territory."

The Phillies will head home for seven games against Colorado and Arizona following this afternoon's contest and sit seven games behind Atlanta in the NL West standings.

Phillies lefty Cole Hamels pitched well enough for a win the last time he faced St. Louis, but was able to set his team up for a victory with eight innings of one-run ball and eight strikeouts in a 2-1 decision on May 4. Hamels, who is 2-2 in seven career starts against the Cardinals, will take the ball today and is 1-0 with a 1.66 ERA in his last three starts.

Hamels, the 2008 World Series MVP, recorded another no-decision in last Saturday's 4-1 victory at the Chicago Cubs and limited the NL Central inhabitants to a run on eight hits in seven innings. The left-hander remained at 7-7 in 19 starts this year and lowered his ERA to 3.63. He hopes to even his road mark tonight, as he sports a 3-4 ledger in nine away starts this season.

The Phillies had a four-game winning streak in the Gateway City come to an end with a loss in Monday's opener of this set. St. Louis now leads the season series by a 4-3 count.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.

MySportsbook.com: NBA Championship Odds

With the playoffs about two months away, the top two teams in the Western Conference are the clear cut leaders to win the NBA Championship. The Dallas Mavericks have the best record in the NBA (44-9) and have been absolutely scorching since the second week of the season.  What makes the Mavs’ record more impressive is the fact that they dropped their first four games of the season.  Currently they have won 17 out of their last 18 and are MySportsbook.com’s favorite (2-1) to win it all.  Right behind the Mavs are the Pacific leading Phoenix Suns (39-13).  Last season, the Suns lost in the Conference Finals to non-other then the Mavericks four games to two.  Of course the Suns were without center Amare Stoudemire who has is averaging 19.9 PPG and 9.5 RPG since coming back from his knee injury.  Unlike the Mavs, the Suns have struggled a bit lately having lost their last three and four out of their last seven.  Of course the main reason for their three straight loses is due to the absence of two time MVP Steve Nash, who is out with a shoulder injury.  Heads-up, the Mavs have beaten the Suns in both of their meetings this season.

In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons (32-19) are the favorites to win it all at 6-1. The addition of Chris Webber seems to have been a good move for the Pistons.  Since coming over from the 76ers, Webber has averaged 13.1 PPG and 7.3 RPG and the Pistons are 11-4.  Even though the defending champion Heat are currently on the playoff making cusp, they are the Eastern Conference team that is getting the most action to win it all (9-1).  The fact that Shaquille O’Neal is back in the starting lineup after missing 39 games probably has something to do with this.  No doubt, Shaq makes a difference when in the lineup as their winning six out of their last seven would indicate.

Just because it is the All-Star break doesn’t mean that you can’t bet on NBA hoops this weekend.  Be sure to log onto MySportsbook.com to bet on who you think will cut down the nets this July. Also, be sure to check out all of the lines and props for All-Star weekend.  With the highest credit card acceptance rate in the industry, there are plenty of ways to cash in on the NBA this weekend.

MySportsbook.com’s NBA Championship odds:

Atlanta Hawks 1000-1

Boston Celtics 5000-1

Charlotte Bobcats 5000-1

Chicago Bulls 20-1

Cleveland Cavaliers 20-1

Dallas Mavericks 2-1

Denver Nuggets 25-1

Detroit Pistons 6-1

Golden State Warriors 250-1

Houston Rockets 12-1

Indiana Pacers 60-1

Los Angeles Clippers 45-1

Memphis Grizzlies 5000-1

Miami Heat 9-1

Milwaukee Bucks 1000-1

Minnesota T-Wolves 200-1

New Jersey Nets 50-1

New Orleans Hornets 150-1

New York Knicks 150-1

Orlando Magic 75-1

Philadelphia 76ers 1000-1

Phoenix Suns 5-2

Portland TrailBlazers 1000-1

Sacramento Kings 250-1

San Antonio Spurs 9-1

Seattle Sonics 5000-1

Toronto Raptors 35-1

Utah Jazz 20-1

Washington Wizards 25-1

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