Marlins beat down Nationals; Morgan charges mound to start brawl

Baseball Betting Lines

09/01/2010 - Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wes Helms drove in five runs and Florida blew out the Nationals, 16-10, in a game marred by a benches-clearing brawl in the sixth inning.

It was during the top of that frame when Washington center fielder Nyjer Morgan charged the mound and punched Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad. Both players were ejected.

Florida was ahead 15-5 with one out in the inning when Volstad threw a pitch behind Morgan, who was hit on the right side by an offering in the fourth frame. The Marlins were ahead 14-3 in the fourth, but Morgan stole second and third base during the inning.

In the sixth, though, Morgan became upset and immediately threw down his bat and charged the mound. Volstad tossed down his glove and Morgan connected with a left to the pitcher's neck.

Marlins first baseman Gaby Sanchez then raced in and delivered a clothes-line hit to Morgan, who immediately tumbled to the ground. Players for both teams scuffled near the mound and then Pat Listach, the third base coach for the Nationals, joined the fray by piling on Volstad and possibly throwing a punch.

After being ejected by home plate umpire Marvin Hudson and upon leaving the field with the front of his jersey unbuttoned, Morgan motioned to the crowd and banged his chest.

Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez and relief pitcher Jose Veras were also ejected.

The harsh feelings continued in the seventh inning when Nationals pitcher Doug Slaten was ejected for plunking Sanchez with a pitch. Nationals manager Jim Riggleman was also shown the door.

Donnie Murphy knocked in three runs for the Marlins, who took the rubber match of this three-game set. Murphy, though, departed the game with a dislocated right wrist.

The result was much different than Tuesday's 1-0 Marlins win that came in 10 innings on Chad Tracy's RBI single.

Mike Stanton delivered a two-run homer, while Cameron Maybin and Brad Davis added solo shots.

Ian Desmond ended with three hits and two RBI for Washington.

Nationals starter Scott Olsen (3-8) allowed eight hits and nine runs in 1 2/3 innings and lost his sixth straight start.

Volstad (9-9) yielded nine hits and six runs to win his third consecutive appearance.

Mike Morse singled in a run in the top of the first, but the Marlins scored 14 times over the first three frames. Helms' two-run doubled keyed the big opening frame, during which Hanley Ramirez and Davis also had run-scoring two- baggers.

Morgan and Desmond drove in runs in the top of the second, but Helms singled in a pair in the bottom half and Stanton's blast to left capped the five-run frame.

The Marlins continued to pour it on in the third. Sanchez singled in two runs and scored on a Murphy double. Helms followed with an RBI base hit for a 14-3 cushion.

Davis hit his first career homer in the fourth, before Adam Kennedy singled in a run in the top of the fifth.

The Nats got a bit closer in the explosive sixth thanks to three runs, the last on a Danny Espinosa RBI double.

Wil Nieves homered in the seventh and pinch-hitter Willie Harris singled in a run for a 15-10 game before Maybin homered to left off Slaten to start the bottom half of the frame.

Game Notes

Earlier in the day, the Marlins selected the contracts of pitcher Jorge Sosa from Triple-A New Orleans and catcher Chris Hatcher from Double-A Jacksonville...Florida has won seven of the last eight encounters...The teams will meet for the final time in Washington from September 10-12.

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Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

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