Tulowitzki homers twice as Rockies stay hot with win over Reds

Baseball Betting Lines

09/08/2010 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Troy Tulowitzki hit two homers and drove in four runs, leading the surging Colorado Rockies in a 9-2 rout of the struggling Cincinnati Reds in the third of four games at Coors Field.

Tulowitzki notched his second career multi-homer game and first since June 23, 2009 for the Rockies, who have won six straight to climb to within four games of the first-place Padres, who are playing Los Angeles. Seth Smith also homered, while Jonathan Herrera and Eric Young, Jr. each had a two-run single in the win, Colorado's ninth straight at home over Cincinnati.

Carlos Gonzalez extended his hitting streak to 16 games with a 1-for-3 effort at the plate. Aaron Cook (6-8) earned the win, allowing one run, six hits and a walk in five-plus innings before leaving after a line drive hit him in the leg.

Joey Votto had three hits and drove in a run for the Reds, who have lost four straight and five of six, but still lead St. Louis by six games in the NL Central after the Cardinals lost to Milwaukee. Bronson Arroyo (14-10) lost his third straight start after giving up seven runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 frames.

Votto's RBI single in the first put the Reds ahead early, but the Rockies' lineup woke up and took a substantial lead.

Smith singled with one down in the second and moved to third on Miguel Olivo's double. Herrera followed with a two-run single to right for a 2-1 lead.

Dexter Fowler began the third with a base hit, and Gonzalez worked a walk to get to Tulowitzki, whose blast to left put Colorado ahead, 5-1. Tulowitzki added a leadoff shot in the fifth to extend the lead, and the Rockies added three more runs in the inning on Smith's solo homer and Young's two-run single for a eight-run advantage.

Cincinnati drew one closer on Paul Janish's RBI single in the seventh, and the Reds later loaded the bases with one out in the inning. Chris Valaika, however, grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Colorado cruised the rest of the way.

Game Notes

The Reds surrendered the NL's best record to Philadelphia, which beat Florida...Cincinnati last won at Coors Field on August 22, 2008...The Rockies tied their best win streak of 2010. They also won six straight from July 4-10...Cook is 4-0 lifetime against the Reds and has given up one run in 12 innings against Cincinnati in two starts this season...The Reds have lost 18 of their last 21 games against Colorado.

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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.

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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.)

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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.

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