Sports Handicapper Bryan Power's Picks & Predictions

10* Minnesota (7:05 ET): The Pirates are pretty clearly outclassed in this series, which now shifts to Pittsburgh for the next two games. The Bucs had no luck in Minnesota, losing 5-4 and 7-3 the last two days, and playing in an empty PNC Park isn’t about to change things. The Twins have won five straight games while the Pirates have lost six in a row. The underdogs had their chance Monday, but blew a 4-0 lead. Look for the Twins to continue to make them pay. 

At 9-2, Minnesota has equaled the franchise’s best ever start through 11 games. They have a +27 run differential, which is the best in the American League and second best in all of baseball (Dodgers). Randy Dobnak gets the start tonight, looking to continue his own personal strong start to 2020. In two starts, Dobnak has gone nine innings and allowed just one run on six hits. Last time out, he pitched five scoreless frames in a 4-1 win over Cleveland. 

Trevor Williams has the unenviable task of facing a red hot Twins lineup, which is led by Nelson Cruz, who already has 15 RBI’s. Williams has an 0-2 TSR so far with the Pirates losing 9-1 (St. Louis) and 6-3 (Cubs). The Bucs have baseball’s worst record right now (2-9) and I’m not surprised as they were projected to be among the worst teams this season. The Twins have allowed no more than four runs in any of the L9 games while the Pirates have managed only 14 runs total during their six-game slide. 10* Minnesota

8* Under Penguins/Canadiens (8:05 ET): We had Pittsburgh in Game 2, which was a must win for the Penguins, and sure enough they came through in 3-1 fashion to even up the series at a game apiece. Now comes the all-important Game 3. Both games so far have gone Under with Montreal winning Game 1 by a score of 3-2. That’s the way we see this one going as well as the respective goaltenders should continue to rule the series. 

Pittsburgh stuck with Matt Murray in Game 2 and he rewarded them by carrying a shutout into the third period. He made 26 saves in all. One could argue that Montreal’s Carey Price was even more impressive though. He stopped 35 shots in Game 2 (last Penguins goal was an empty netter) and that was after making 39 saves in Game 1. The thought was that if Montreal was going to “steal” this series, it would be on the back of Price. I’m not surprised how well he’s playing. 

The Under is now 5-0 the last five Penguins’ playoff games where they were a favorite. Obviously, that’s the case again here. The Under is also now 6 for 6 the last six head to head matchups with Montreal. The Canadiens are 12-2-3 their L17 games as a playoff underdog. 8* Under Penguins/Canadiens

10* Colorado (6:35 ET): The Avs pulled the proverbial “rabbit out of their hat” Sunday, beating the Blues at the buzzer. The 2-1 win was a nice start to round robin play for a team that I felt was the best in the West pre-lockdown. No other team in the conference could match the Avalanche’s +46 goal differential. Having already dispatched the reigning Stanley Cup Champs (and the team with the most points in the West this year), it shouldn’t prove difficult to defeat the weakest team in the West’s round robin format, that being Dallas. 

The Stars have now technically lost seven straight games after Monday’s 5-3 setback at the hands of Vegas. That was a brutal loss in the sense that Dallas blew a 3-1 lead, giving up four goals in the third period. That will be tough to overcome. Colorado will NOT be lacking for motivation here as they were 0-2-2 vs. the Stars in the regular season. 

Despite the head to head results, I would deem it “laughable” to consider the Stars as the better side here. They had a goal differential of only +3 before the season got shut down. That was only eighth best among Western Conference teams. I am anticipating the Avalanche winning the round robin format while the Stars were my pick to finish last. Thus, the play here is automatic. 10* Colorado

10* Memphis (2:30 ET): Underdogs had a strong effort yesterday, especially in the daytime where there were two huge upsets - Nets over Bucks and Suns over Clippers. The former was the largest upset the NBA has seen (in terms of pointspread) since 1993. I was on the latter. Were Memphis to defeat Utah Weds afternoon, it would obviously not be in the same realm of those aforementioned upsets. But still give us the Grizz plus the points in this one. 

Both of these teams are 0-3 ATS since the restart. The only difference is Utah did win a game straight up, their opener, 106-104 over New Orleans. But the Jazz trailed by double digits in that one. Memphis just played New Orleans, and lost, a result I was happy about since I laid points with the Pelicans. Having lost three in a row, the Grizzlies hold on 8th place in the Western Conference has gotten a lot more tenuous. They entered Tuesday just two games up on both the Spurs and Blazers. A play-in scenario is all but assured with whomever finishes ninth, but right now Memphis simply needs to worry about winning a game. 

After suffering a third straight loss, news got even worse for Memphis when it was announced yday that forward Jaren Jackson Jr is out for the season due to a knee injury. Jackson had averaged 25.3 points in the three games so far. However, let’s not forget Utah is playing without its second leading scorer - Bojan Bogdanovic - as well. Also concerning for the Jazz is that their last two opponents have shot better than 50% from the field. Memphis is more desperate here. 10* Memphis