A-Rod hits grand slam as Yankees overpower Indians

Baseball Betting Lines

05/31/2010 - Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Alex Rodriguez hit a grand slam to highlight a six-run seventh inning and ended with six RBI, as the Yankees closed out a four-game series against the Indians with a 11-2 victory.

Andy Pettitte (7-1) rolled through Cleveland's lineup for seven innings, allowing just four hits -- one a Jhonny Peralta solo homer -- with five strikeouts and zero walks.

Robinson Cano extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a solo home run and later chipped in a two-run single.

Rodriguez finished with three hits -- the others an RBI double and run-scoring single. It was his 20th career grand slam, passing Eddie Murray for third place on the all-time list.

Brett Gardner added three hits and an RBI, while Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher each picked up two hits and scored twice as New York picked up its fifth win in seven games behind a season-high 18-hit attack.

Indians starter Mitch Talbot (6-4) was charged with three runs on nine hits in 6 1/3 innings. A combination of Rafael Perez and Chris Perez came on to surrender five runs during the fateful seventh frame without retiring a batter.

It was a 2-1 Yankee lead going into the seventh where everything fell apart for Cleveland.

Gardner began the onslaught with a single, but was quickly erased on an attempted steal of second. Derek Jeter then singled, but was replaced by a pinch-runner. He had taken a pitch to the back of his left thigh in the second inning. Yankee manager Joe Girardi indicated after the game the hamstring had stiffened as the game went along.

Rafael Perez came on for Talbot and gave up a base hit to Granderson, uncorked a wild pitch to advance the runners and intentionally walked Mark Teixeira to load the bases.

Chris Perez was called upon to limit the damage, but instead served up a 3-1 fastball that Rodriguez crushed to dead center. Cano then ripped a pitch over the wall in right and Swisher doubled to bring Jamey Wright out of the pen.

Francisco Cervelli capped the frame's scoring with a sacrifice fly to make it an 8-1 affair. New York stretched its lead further with Rodriguez's RBI double and Cano's two-run single in the eighth.

Pettitte, meanwhile, had retired 14 straight following a Mark Grudzielanek single in the third leading up to New York's huge seventh inning. Chan Ho Park took over where Pettitte left off by retiring the next five before hitting a snag with two outs in the ninth. He put three on and gave up a Shelley Duncan RBI single before getting the final out.

The Yankees got on the board in their first at-bat. Granderson lifted a ground-rule double to right and came home two batters later on Rodriguez's base hit into right-center.

Peralta turned on a Pettitte fastball and put it well into the right-field bleachers leading off the second for his 100th career home run.

The game remained tied until the fourth when Swisher led off with a double and Gardner laced a two-out single to center for a 2-1 edge.

Game Notes

The Yankees took three of four in the series after winning five of the eight matchups a year ago...Pettitte lowered his earned-run average to 2.48 on the season with three earned runs and no walks over his last two starts (15 innings). He evened his record at 8-8 in 20 career starts against the Tribe and was 0-4 in his previous six starts against the Indians in the Bronx...It was A-Rod's seventh homer this year and 590th of his career. Only Yankee legend Lou Gehrig (23) and Dodgers left fielder Manny Ramirez (21) have more career grand slams than Rodriguez...Cano hit his 11th home run this season and is batting .450 (27-for-60) with eight doubles, two homers and 17 RBI over his hitting streak....Gardner was caught stealing twice in the same game for the first time in his career.

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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.