Giants capitalize on eighth-inning miscues by Rockies

Baseball Betting Lines

09/02/2010 - San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Darren Ford scored on a crazy turn of events after a wild pitch in the bottom of the eighth frame, as the Giants edged the Rockies, 2-1, at AT&T Park.

In a battle of marquee hurlers, Mike Fontenot worked a walk off Ubaldo Jimenez to start the home eighth then Tim Lincecum's sacrifice bunt moved the pinch- runner Ford to second. With Andres Torres at the plate, Jimenez bounced a pitch that was blocked by kicked away from Miguel Olivo. Ford took off for third and Olivo's throw sailed high and wide of Melvin Mora, as Ford raced home with the go-ahead run.

Brian Wilson slammed the door in the ninth for his 38th save. The Giants remained 1 1/2 games behind the wild card leaders, Philadelphia, with their third win in four games and moved within three games of the fading Padres in the National League West race. It was a welcome win for Lincecum (12-9), who had not won since July 30th and had lost five straight starts. He gave up one run on five hits with nine strikeouts and one walk over eight frames.

Jimenez (17-6) failed to become the first National League pitcher this season to reach 18 victories, giving up the two runs on four hits with 10 strikeouts and three walks over eight frames.

The Rockies dropped 5 1/2 games behind the Phillies in the wild card race.

Colorado scored first in the fourth as Carlos Gonzalez stroked a home run over the wall in left-center field. It was one of three hits for Gonzalez off the right-hander on the game.

The Giants finally got to Jimenez in the fifth, starting with Jose Guillen's leadoff single. Buster Posey then walked, and after Pablo Sandoval struck out, Fontenot slapped a run-scoring single to center. Jimenez escaped further damage by getting Lincecum to bounce into a double play.

The Rockies put two runners on base in the top of the seventh, but Lincecum struck out Eric Young, Jr. to end the threat.

Wilson induced three consecutive fly outs in the ninth to record the save.

Game Notes

Jimenez is still tied with Adam Wainwright for the National League lead with 17 victories. Jimenez failed in his fifth attempt to become the first Rockies pitcher to win 18 games in a single season. Kevin Ritz (1996), Pedro Astacio (1999) and Jeff Francis (2007) all won 17 games for the Rockies...The two teams have battled it out this season with Colorado holding a slight 8-7 series lead...Gonzalez hit his 30th home run of the season...The Giants reinstated shortstoph Edgar Renteria and pitcher Dan Runzler from the 15-day disabled list on Wednesday. The club also recalled Ford from Double-A Richmond prior the game, and he scored the winning run.

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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:

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