Twins have brooms ready for Mariners

Baseball Betting Lines

08/29/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Twins will attempt to complete a three-game road sweep of the lowly Seattle Mariners today at Safeco Field.

Carl Pavano, one of the majors' most surprising performers in 2010, will take the ball for Minnesota today. On Tuesday, Pavano struggled against Texas, allowing four earned runs on eight hits in eight innings en route to defeat. He has now lost back-to-back starts for the first time since May. The veteran righty is 15-9 this season with a 3.56 ERA and six complete games.

Over the last decade, Pavano has only thrown a total of 20 innings against Seattle and owns a 1-1 mark against Mariners during that time with a 4.05 ERA.

Luke French, who is set to get the ball for Seattle today, is a young left- hander who continues to search for some consistency. French is 2-4 this season with a 4.57 ERA, and he has only 18 strikeouts with 16 walks in 45 1/3 innings. Last Sunday, he allowed five runs on five hits and five walks in five innings of a loss to the Yankees.

French is 0-1 with a 5.06 ERA in his brief career against the Twins.

On Saturday, Nick Blackburn hurled 8 2/3 scoreless innings and Denard Span drove in the lone run as Minnesota clipped Seattle, 1-0.

Blackburn (8-8) yielded two hits to win for the first time since June 29, and failed to allow a run in a start for the first time since May 9 against Baltimore.

He retired 21 batters in succession from the second through the ninth and finished with a season-high six strikeouts. Brian Fuentes made his Twins debut a successful one, a four-pitch strikeout to notch his 24th save.

"That was good. Joe (Mauer) and I had these guys off balance. They just weren't putting good swings on the ball," Blackburn said of his start. "I was getting away with pitches down the middle and they just were looking for something else, so they were beating it into the ground."

Delmon Young added two hits and Danny Valencia scored for the Twins, who have won three in a row and extended their lead over Chicago in the AL Central to 4 1/2 games after the White Sox lost to the Yankees later Saturday.

Twins second baseman Orlando Hudson left the game in the second inning with a right ankle sprain, and Minnesota DH Jim Thome later exited with back stiffness.

Russell Branyan and Jose Lopez collected the lone hits for the Mariners, who suffered their sixth loss in seven.

Doug Fister (4-10) was the hard-luck loser as he scattered six hits and one run over seven innings, fanning six with two walks.

Minnesota has won six of its nine meetings with the Mariners this season.

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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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