By Dan Behringer for LVSportsBiz.com
It’s hard to beat autumn baseball. Even in a pandemic.
There’s the slow, torturous playoff-style pace, the occasional crack of the bat and the plunk and carom of a home-run ball into fanless stands.
So there we were, within spitting distance (actually, you really don’t want to spit during a pandemic) of a locals race and sportsbook for the first of Major League Baseball Wild Card games last Tuesday.
We listened as a largely pro-Houston Astros crowd cheered anything that benefited the Astros and worked against their opponent, the Minnesota Twins. Maybe they were serious baseball fans. Or maybe they had tickets on the Astros at +145. We strongly suspect the later.
Regardless, the Astros paid their backers and sent the Twins to their 17th straight postseason loss. The Twins lost the following day, too, and made another abrupt exit from the MLB playoffs. The last time the Twins won a postseason game was October 2004 when they beat the Yankees in Game 1 of the ALDS, according to USA Today. Baseball aficionado George W. Bush was president at the time.
We lingered long enough that day to jump on the New York Yankees at -115, figuring only the Bronx Bombers at short chalk was a reasonable investment. We also briefly looked at over 6.5 runs. In case you wondered, the Yankees won, 12-3.
There was another intriguing game the same day. The Las Vegas Aces were in a deciding Game 5 WNBA Semifinals game with the Connecticut Sun.
Oddsmakers made the Aces -3.5 vs. the Sun, but by the time we got to the window it was -3. Figuring the Aces would show up for this one, we got down on the -170 money line.
As it turned out -3 was a good number. A perfect number, in fact. The Aces rallied from a 16-point deficit to win, 69-66.
By midweek, another game intrigued us: Game 1 of the NBA Finals. What we know about professional basketball might fill the aglet of one of LeBron James’s shoelaces. However, we were impressed by how the Miami Heat battled their way into the Finals. But we were equally impressed by the size, strength and defense of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Our amateur opinion for Game 1 was that the line on the Lakers -4.5 was a bit short. We leaned strongly toward the first-half line of -3. Ultimately, we didn’t play it. But we weren’t surprised when the Lakers overcame a slow start, rolled to a 65-48 first-half lead en route to a 116-98 win.
As the week wound down, we turned our attention back to the Las Vegas Aces and their Game 1 vs. the Seattle Storm in the WNBA Finals. The Storm at -5.5 seemed about right. Back the Storm in the opener and look for the Aces to rebound in Game 2? That seemed logical although we didn’t play the game. The Storm made it look easy, thumping the Aces 93-80.
There was also some intrigue in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
With the Heat missing key players because of injuries, the line on the Lakers ballooned to -10. There was a late tick to -10.5. When the dust settled after 48 minutes of playing time, the Lakers had defeated the Heat 124-114. It was that close. Talk about a good number.
But were the Aces capable of rebounding in Game 2? We thought they might, but we weren’t sufficiently persuaded to invest any capital. In fact, the Aces at +7.5 was very tempting. But it was the Storm that won again, this time 104-91, securing the cover by winning the fourth quarter, 29-23. It’s Seattle -8.5 for Game 3 on Tuesday.
Game 3 of the NBA Finals with the Lakers favored by 9.5 was equally intriguing. The Heat responded with a 115-104 win (paying money line bettors about +360) but still trail the series 2-1. We’re seeing Lakers -7.5 for Game 4 on Tuesday.
Elsewhere:
— The Las Vegas Raiders garnered sporadic cheers and applause and lured fans in splashy Raiders garb to the race and sportsbooks on Sunday. But it was the Buffalo Bills who came away with the win, 30-23. The Bills were laying 3.5 so it was a cover for the visitors at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The final total pushed at 53, but early bettors who had 52.5 eked out a win.
— The trend toward over in NFL games cooled slight on Sunday with overs going 6-4-2. Prior to Sunday, the over was 30-19 (61.2 percent) this season, according to Vegas Insider. The total is 56.5 for the Monday Night Football game with the Atlanta Falcons at the Green Bay Packers.
— Clemson, ranked No. 1 in college football polls, has failed to cover its first three games. They next play Miami on Saturday.
— More playoff baseball gets underway Monday. MLB Divisional Playoffs start Monday with National League games added to the rotation on Tuesday. One of Monday’s matchups include the New York Yankees and Gerrit Cole as starting pitching vs. their rival Tampa Bay Rays with Blake Snell on the mound. Rays are about +135 for the game.