Lilly tosses two-hitter as Dodgers take rubber match against Rox

Baseball Betting Lines

08/20/2010 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ted Lilly's two-hit shutout and Reed Johnson's two-run homer lifted the Dodgers over the Rockies, 2-0, in the rubber match of their three-game series.

Lilly (7-8) struck out 11 and walked a pair en route to his third career shutout and first since 2004. The veteran lefty has been a revelation since coming over in a trade with the Cubs, winning each of his four starts with Los Angeles while pitching to a 1.29 earned run average.

LA has won 10 straight series against the Rockies and has shut them out in three of their last four games at Chavez Ravine. Colorado has alternated wins and losses in each of its 16 games in August.

Jorge De La Rosa (4-4) was the hard-luck loser, yielding five hits and four walks over a seven-inning start, his lone error being a hanging changeup in the second inning that Johnson drove into the left-field bleachers.

"The job De La Rosa did was terrific," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. "He gave us a chance to win. He paid for one pitch up in the zone to Reed Johnson. We just couldn't hit."

That homer, which was a two-run shot thanks to Casey Blake working a walk ahead of the blast, was all Lilly needed, as his lone blemish in the first seven frames was Dexter Fowler's one-out double in the opening frame.

Lilly set down 19 straight from there, shook off Troy Tulowitzki's two-out single in the seventh and retired three in a row after walking Todd Helton to open the eighth.

Facing the top of Colorado's order in the ninth, Lilly walked Eric Young Jr. before getting Fowler to bounce into a tailor-made 4-6-3 double play.

Fittingly, the 34-year-old froze Ryan Spilborghs on an 0-2 sinker to finish off his masterpiece.

"There was not much room for error tonight," Lilly said. "I couldn't lose focus against a good team like that. I don't get the opportunity to finish very often, so I tried to make the most of it."

Game Notes

Lilly, who needed 110 pitches to notch his fifth career complete game, had three wins in 18 starts with Chicago this year. His last shutout came on August 23, 2004 against Boston while he was pitching for Toronto...Johnson's homer was his first since June 19, 2009...Rockies catcher Miguel Olivo was ejected by home-plate umpire Laz Diaz in the eighth inning after he slammed his bat following a called third strike...Ryan Theriot had two of LA's five hits...Before the game, Colorado released outfielder Brad Hawpe, who has spent his entire seven-year career with the club...LA also made a roster move, placing pitcher Vicente Padilla on the 15-day disabled list with a neck injury.

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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:

To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.

MySportsbook.com favors Bears, Bengals, Chargers and Colts to remain perfect

LAS VEGAS , Sept. 28 - Two big match-ups of undefeated teams have fans salivating at the Week Four schedule in the NFL. The Chicago Bears stifling defense looks to provide a less than hospitable welcome to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night in a battle of two 3-0 teams in the NFC conference. In the AFC, the San Diego Chargers (2-0) head to Maryland to face the surprising Baltimore Ravens (3-0) as both try to keep pace atop the conference standings. Betting Lines makers at MySportsbook.com, online sportsbook and casino, have set the Bears as 3.5 point favorites while the Chargers are a 2.5 point bet.

Of the three remaining undefeated teams, only one, New Orleans, enters this week's game as an underdog. Despite an emotional and resounding win over Atlanta on Monday night, the Saints are a 7.5 point underdog against the struggling Carolina Panthers. Indianapolis looks to stay perfect when they face the New York Jets as a 9 point road favorite while the Cincinnati Bengals are a 6 point favorite at home to the New England Patriots.

Six teams enter the week still looking for their first win, with a seventh, Tampa Bay, on a bye week. The prospect of dropping another game would not bode well for a potential playoff run. Since 1990, just three teams -- the 1992 Chargers, 1995 Detroit Lions and 1998 Buffalo Bills -- have overcome losing their first three games of the season to earn a postseason berth. And only the Chargers managed to accomplish the feat after starting 0-4.

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