Brewers, Bucs resume series between slumping clubs

Baseball Betting Lines

07/10/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Right-hander Dave Bush can beat his hometown team for the second time this season when the Milwaukee Brewers host the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight in the middle game of a three-game series at Miller Park.

The Brewers won Friday's opener in dramatic fashion, scoring a run in the eighth and ninth innings to tie the contest before claiming a 5-4 decision in 10 frames. Ryan Braun lined an opposite-field single over Ryan Church's head in right field to score Rickie Weeks with the game-winning run for Milwaukee.

Braun, who earlier in the game snapped out of an 0-for-19 slump, came up with runners on first and second and two outs in the 10th after Evan Meek (4-3) intentionally walked Prince Fielder. He then struck the game-winning hit to end Milwaukee's five-game slide, with Weeks scoring without a play at the plate.

Fielder added a solo homer and Corey Hart had a two-run blast in the win, which was credited to John Axford (4-1) after he struck out Pedro Alvarez and Ryan Doumit to strand a runner on third in the top of the 10th.

Doug Davis, in his first start since May 10, surrendered four runs on seven hits and three walks over five innings for Milwaukee. His counterpart, Paul Maholm, held the Brewers to two runs on three hits and a pair of walks in a seven-inning no-decision.

Andrew McCutchen went 2-for-5 with a home run and two RBI for the Pirates, losers of four straight overall. Lastings Milledge added two hits, including a solo homer.

Bush, a 30-year-old veteran of 178 major-league appearances, beat the Pirates on April 20 in Pittsburgh by allowing just three hits in seven scoreless innings. The win raised his career mark against Pittsburgh - where he was born in November of 1979 - to 4-4 in 13 appearances and lowered his earned run average against the Pirates to 4.40 in 73 2/3 innings.

More recently, Bush has gone two starts since his last win, an 8-3 downing of Seattle on June 25. He's since lost to Houston and gotten a no-decision against San Francisco while giving up just three runs in 10 hits in 12 innings.

Bush is 1-4 with a 4.47 over nine starts in Milwaukee this season.

For the Pirates, California-born right-hander Jeff Karstens makes his eighth career appearance against the Brewers while still seeking his first win.

An ex-New York Yankees farmhand, Karstens tossed 6 2/3 innings of two-run ball against Milwaukee in his initial appearance of 2010 and added two-thirds of an inning of scoreless relief in a subsequent matchup on May 20. He got no- decisions in both games and is 0-1 with a 3.45 ERA in 28 2/3 overall innings against the Brewers.

His last victory came June 19 in an interleague matchup with Cleveland. Since then, Karstens is 0-1 with a pair of no-decisions while giving up 23 hits and 11 runs in 17 1/3 innings. He's 0-3 in nine road games this season.

Milwaukee has won six of its nine matchups with the Pirates this season and is 29-9 against the Bucs since the start of the 2008 campaign.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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!

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