Cardinals turn to Garcia versus Dodgers

Baseball Betting Lines

07/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals hope that rookie starter Jaime Garcia can duplicate what Chris Carpenter did last night when he takes the ball Friday in the second portion of a four-game series versus the Los Angeles Dodgers at Busch Stadium.

Carpenter allowed just one run and four hits in eight innings of Thursday's 7-1 beating of the Dodgers and Mitchell Boggs completed the four-hitter with two strikeouts in the ninth inning.

"I was able to make good pitches. I thought the command of my fastball was better," Carpenter said. "Scoring seven runs was nice."

Garcia would enjoy a seven-run outburst of his own when he makes his 18th start of the season Friday. He has won five of his last seven decisions and is coming off a no-decision on July 7 in an 8-7 loss at the Rockies. Garcia was reached for four runs -- two earned -- and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings to remain at 8-4 this season, while slightly raising his ERA to 2.17.

The young left-hander threw a scoreless inning of relief to beat the Dodgers on August 5 last season and will make his first start against them tonight.

Albert Pujols had three hits Thursday and scored once, while Allen Craig knocked in two runs for the Cardinals, who have won three of four games and are just a half-game behind idle Cincinnati for first place in the NL Central. The Reds were off Thursday and will host Colorado this weekend.

St. Louis got two hits and an RBI from both Yadier Molina and Aaron Miles and will also host Philadelphia for four games on the homestand.

Los Angeles entered the All-Star break with six wins in nine tries, but came out a bit sluggish in Thursday's series opener in the Gateway City.

Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw fell to 9-5 this season after he allowed five runs -- four earned -- and eight hits over 4 1/3 innings to absorb the loss. He didn't get much offensive support besides the help provided by Andre Ethier, who ended 2-for-4 with the lone RBI and a run scored.

"They just kept the pressure on all night," Kershaw said. "The leadoff guy was on every inning. It wasn't a snowball effect, but when you get leadoff guys on and you're getting some hits, it's a tough way to pitch."

LA, which was outhit by a 12-4 difference, will rest its hopes on Chad Billingsley for tonight's second installment of this series. Since winning four straight starts in late May, Billingsley is just 1-2 with a 4.89 earned run average in his last six appearances. He won his most recent outing on July 9 against the Chicago Cubs, as he gave up four runs in seven innings of a 9-7 win. Billingsley improved to 7-4 this season in 16 starts.

The right-hander has been solid on the road this season, going 4-1 in eight starts, and is 1-2 with a 4.40 ERA in six career games (5 starts) against the Cardinals.

The Dodgers swept a three-game set at home versus the Cardinals from June 7-9 after losing five of seven to the club last season.

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Mayweather picked to beat De La Hoya
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and his rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. arrived at the MGM Grand here Wednesday amid the pomp and pandemonium befitting two of the biggest stars in the sport who are about to duke it out for the WBC super welterweight crown this Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

As of Wednesday, MySportsbook.com closed its book with Mayweather a favorite to defeat De La Hoya at -170 (a $100 bet wins $70), while De La Hoya is a +140 underdog (a $100 bet wins $140).

Mayweather arrived at about 11:30 a.m. on a big truck with his face and a big "World's Best Pound-for-Pound" sign scribbled across the vehicle. He was accompanied by his entourage made up of rappers and his training team.

A crowd of close to 3,000 eager fans packed the MGM Grand lobby, with their cameras in tow, all trying to vie for position to get a good angle at Mayweather, who is acknowledged as the world's best fighter pound-for-pound.

Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions vice-president, described the fan turnout as "amazing" and swore he had never seen anything quite like this event.

"The crowd was fantastic. Everybody was just too eager to see the two fighters," said ALA manager Michael Aldeguer, who was among those who waited at the lobby together with his ward Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and AJ Banal.

De La Hoya made his own grand entrance at the hotel lobby at around 12:30 p.m. accompanied by GBP chief executive officer Richard Schaefer and trainer Freddie Roach.

The same group of fans who trooped to see Mayweather also lingered around to get a close look at De La Hoya, who has been secretly working out at a Las Vegas gym for days after arriving from his main training camp in Puerto Rico.

The golden boy then took part in a closed-door afternoon workout with Bautista and Banal. The two, along with Aldeguer and wife Christine, as well as an HBO crew were the only ones allowed inside the gym.

De La Hoya and Mayweather take part in today's final press conference before the official weigh-in this Friday.

Ring Magazine, the acknowledged bible of boxing, reported in its June 2007 issue that 12 out of 20 boxing experts it interviewed have favored Mayweather to defeat De la Hoya, with only 8 favoring the latter.

But Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao said in a recent interview with The Freeman's Emmanuel Villaruel that De La Hoya will win by unanimous decision over Mayweather.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on boxing needs.


Online Sportsbook Football Betting

Why Sports Betting is so much fun?

Betting Sports

The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)

But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)

Points (or Runs) Scored

Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.

The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.

Future Bets

Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.

Proposition Bets (or Prop Bets)

Proposition bets , also known as prop bets, focus upon the more exotic aspects of a game and are generally reserved for events that are widely televised. Prop bets are extremely popular when it comes to wagering on the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. The Imperial Palace Casino’s sportsbook is well-known for the enormous number of prop bets offered. For example, you can bet on:

Types of Bets

Straight Bet

Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.

Sports Betting Parlays

A parlay is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers and is dependent on all of those wagers winning together. The benefit of the parlay bet is much better odds than placing each individual bet separately since the difficulty of hitting it is much higher.

Standard payoffs on a two-team parlay are 13/5; while a three-teamer pays 6/1; and a four-teamer 10/1.

Parlay cards are also fairly common in sportsbooks and popular with bettors, as they are released early in the week with set odds that do not change in return for a slightly lower payoff.

Round Robin Betting

Adventurous bettors who enjoy betting parlays sometimes put together a series of parlays called a Round Robin . A three-team Round Robin consists of one three-team parlay and three two-team parlays. For example, Joe likes teams A,B,C – with a Round Robin he has a three-teamer with ABC, and two-teamers with AB, AC, and BC.

Betting Teasers

Similar to a parlay, a teaser bet is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers, but is different in that the point spread is adjusted to your advantage on each individual wager. In exchange for the points, you get less of a return on your bet compared to a parlay. For example, a 6-point teaser would move the line on a 7-point favorite from -7 to -1, meaning the team would have to cover 6 less points. Each of the individual wagers must win or the bet is a loss.

These are the main types of sports bets available today. But as sports betting continues to grow, sportsbooks will continue to develop new and creative ways to bet. We’ll continue to track these changes to the sports gambling landscape, so check back often and we’ll tell you all about it!

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.