Astros Suffer Historic Loss

In the grand scheme of things, the Houston Astros' loss to the Baltimore Orioles was no big deal.

After all, the Astros, along with the Yankees and Dodgers, are the best teams in baseball.  They are cruising in their division and the only question is whether Houston will secure home field advantage.

But, after beating the hapless Orioles 23-2 on Saturday, the Astros were beaten by Baltimore, who scored three times in the ninth inning to win 8-7.

And, as it turns out, the loss was somewhat historic.

Some sports books had the Orioles as high as +420 in the betting line, which is almost unheard of.  And, it made sense.  Not only is Baltimore one of the worst teams in baseball (39-78, -231 run differential), they were facing Jason Verlander.

There were some sports books which had the odds even higher. The Astros closed at -460 at Caesar's and -550 at Station's Casinos sports books in Nevada.

The Astros were the ninth favorite of -400 or more in the last 15 years and only the second to lose, making the game one of the biggest upsets in the last 15 years of baseball.

Most of the straight betting was on Baltimore, although there were more picking Houston as part of a parlay bet.