Sports Handicapper ASA's Picks & Predictions

ASA WNBA play on Chicago Sky -4.5 vs. Connecticut Sun, 8pm ET - Connecticut is on a downward trajectory with three straight losses and currently stands 7-21 for the season. By Net rating metrics the Sun are the worst team in the league at -8.9. In comparison, the Sky rank 8th in Net rating at -2.4. The Sun are 3-11 SU on the road this season with the worst average scoring differential in the W at minus -10.8PPG. Chicago has played well since they made some lineup adjustments and could potentially make a playoff run with 17 games to play and only out of the 8th spot by six games. The Sky have the 6th best Net rating over the last 10-games at +2.8 which is a great indicator of just how well they are currently playing. In fact, we just won a bet on the Mystics over the Sun the other night and laid -6.5 points in that game and you can argue the Sky are currently playing better than Washington is. Chicago is 9-18 SU on the season but eleven of those losses have come by single digits. The home team has won both meetings this season and most recently it was the Sun winning at home 92-63 as a +3.5-point home dog on June 22nd. Chicago should remember that beating and based on that spread, the Sky are a bargain here at home favored by the current number. It also helps that the Sun will be without Griner tonight who leads the team in scoring and is 2nd in rebounding. Easy call here with Chicago.

#917 ASA PLAY ON Boston Red Sox -1.5 (-105) over Athletics, Thursday at 9:40 PM ET - The Red Sox won again yesterday and they remain on fire as their run is now 19-3 (86%) and, going a little further back, 24-5 for an 83% winning rate over the past 5 weeks! The Athletics are dead last in the majors with a 5.52 bullpen ERA while Boston is #1 with a 2.99 bullpen ERA. As for the starting pitchers here, the Athletics are likely going with a bullpen game as injuries have hurt this starting rotation. Boston's Sonny Gray, on the other hand, is having a huge season yet he is off a rare tougher outing where he allowed 5 earned runs but all 5 came with 2 outs in the 3rd inning! The Red Sox are 4-0 this season with Gray on the mound when he is off a start in which Boston lost. Yes, they have never lost B2B Gray outings this season and he is 12-2 with a 2.78 ERA this season. Also, the Red Sox are 14-4 in his last 18 starts and 13 of the 14 wins were by at least a 2-run margin! Prior to a tough start in Gray's most recent outing, he allowed a total of only 4 earned runs in 5 outings and this spanned 32 and 1/3 innings! The Athletics were once 38-38 on the season and since then they are on a 7-25 run! This is a classic case of one of the hottest teams (24-5 run) in the league facing one of the coldest teams (7-25 run) in the league. Combining that with a massive bullpen edge and a massive starting pitching edge (Gray has been great and A's have injury issues at starting pitcher), we have no hesitation in laying the run line in this one Thursday. 21 of the A's 25 losses (84%) in their 7-25 run have come by a multi-run margin. Red Sox wins with Gray on the mound have come by a multi-run margin in 13 of the 14 victories. Lay the 1.5 runs with Boston for our lone MLB selection on Thursday and this one goes in late night action. We forecast a road rout in this one after the Red Sox did prevail yesterday yet should have scored a lot more as they left 13 men on base in that one. Boston scores big here and Gray comes up big as well.