Sports betting lines are more often than not, pretty bland. You’ve probably seen them, and they might even pop up on TV when there’s an event that has sports betting implications. But other than that, they can be pretty uneventful. And that’s how most people read them, too. They just scan the lines and see if the team they like is winning and if so what the line is. But that’s not usually the most effective way to read them. You can actually learn a lot by taking the time to glance at the betting lines for major sporting events and seeing how they correlate to the game’s outcome.
How to Read A Baseball Score
Baseball is a game that is very easy to follow, even if you’re not a professional. There are nine innings, and in each inning there’s a winner and a loser. So if you know the outcome of the game—which you usually do if you’re following along—you can easily work out which team is winning and by how much they’re winning. Another thing you could do is look at the betting lines and get an idea of the overall betting trends for that game. That way, you’d know whether or not you should pay attention to the game at all (in other words, should you bet on it or just check the score on your phone).
To help you get started, here’s a basic guide to reading a baseball score:
Standings
The first thing you’ll want to do when you’re looking at a baseball score is find out who’s ahead in the game. To do this, you simply need to scroll over the scorecard until you reach the standings heading, which is usually the bottom of the page. You can find the divisional standings in the middle of the page, as well as the league standings at the very top. If it’s a one-game score, you may also see the text “Head 'n' Tail, WINNER OF GAME 2” at the top of the page. This is in reference to the fact that the team with the better win rate usually wins the game (with exceptions to the rule, of course).
In the divisional standings, you’ll see how the game scores are breaking down by league with a table detailing each team’s record. You can click on any of the divisional headings to reach a page of team standings. You can also click on any of the team names to reach that team’s page with scores from other games. Additionally, you can sort the table by clicking on various columns, such as wins, losses, and/or games remaining. This will help you get a clearer picture of the team’s overall performance, and you can determine whether or not you should continue following the game.
Scoring
The next thing you’ll want to do after you’ve found the team’s record in the standings is to find the scoring. The scoring for a baseball game is usually at the bottom of the page, though it can vary. The most common place to find it is underneath the box scores for the nine innings. You can find the top of the fourth inning scoring at the very top of the page, followed by the bottom of the ninth. If there’s a brief period of time where there’s no scoring, you may see a box with the text “No Scoring” underneath it. This is in reference to the fact that during certain time periods, there won’t be any official scoring—the players will just be throwing their bats after every pitch.
Once you’ve found the scoring, you can move to the next step.
Innings
The next step is to find the innings. For a long time, the innings were simply referred to as the “third” and “sixth”, with some variation of this. But starting in 2014, the name game is over. The modern game continues throughout, with each inning lasting exactly one game. So if you want to find out what happened in the third inning, you’ll have to click on that specific inning and work your way back. This can be a little tricky, as some teams might continue playing in the eighth or ninth innings depending on the score.
Out Come The Bats
Once you’ve reached the ninth inning and the final out has been made, you can move to the next step. This is where things can get a little bit tricky, as there are different rules for the winning and losing teams after the game has finished. For the losing team, you want to find out how many runs they scored in the game and subtract that from the total number of runs they scored in the league. This will give you the score of the game. To do this, simply find the box scores for the winning and losing teams and see how many runs they scored in each game. The losing team’s runs scored will be posted at the top of the page and the winning team’s will be posted at the bottom. If you need a little help, you could look at the betting lines and get an idea of which team is favored to win.
Full Replay
The final step is to look for a full replay of the game. Once you’ve found the game you’re interested in, click on the “Replay” button at the top of the page and it will bring you to a page with all the action from the game. You can choose to view the game from various angles, or you can choose to view clips of the game, which is the default. You can click on any play in the game to see the complete play by play log for that inning, and all previous innings as well.
This is a very basic guide to reading a baseball score, but it’s one that can be very helpful. Sometimes it can be difficult to follow the game if you don’t know where to look—especially if you’re not a professional. But by taking the time to look at the score, you can determine whether or not the game is worth following, whether or not you should bet on it, and who’s coming out on top. It’s all about having the right information at the right time, and by taking the time to look at the score, you can make sure you have both the time and the right information.