In today’s SportSense Entertainment Newsletter…

There were plenty of predictions to go around yesterday across the NBA, NHL, and MLB, with our model focusing in on one of those predictions and making it a 3-star Play. That prediction went 0-1 overall, and you can see how each of the models performed below.

Money Line Predictions: 0-1

Over/Under Predictions: 0-1

Spread Predictions: 0-1

3-star Predictions: 0-0

Money Line Predictions: 0-1

Over/Under Predictions: 1-0

Puck Line Predictions: 1-0

3-star Predictions: 0-0

Money Line Predictions: 3-4

Over/Under Predictions: 3-4

Run Line Predictions: 5-2

3-star Predictions: 0-1

🏆 Miami avoids catastrophic choke, advances to NBA Finals. The Miami Heat were flirting with the wrong side of history for much of the last week, but when it mattered most the Heat came to play. Miami took down Boston last night 103-84 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, punching its ticket to the NBA Finals for the first time since the infamous bubble of 2020. Jimmy Butler was named Eastern Conference Finals MVP after his 28-point performance in Game 7, and Caleb Martin’s 26 points were more than enough to slam the door on the defending Eastern Conference Champions. The Heat will now take on the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals, with Game 1 scheduled for Thursday in Denver.

🚨 Philadelphia finds its next head coach. After dismissing Doc Rivers of his duties following yet another second round playoff exit, it is being reported that the Philadelphia 76ers have hired former Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse to be the team’s new leader, per Adrian Wojnarowski. Nurse coached the Raptors for the last five seasons, posting a 227-163 record in that time and leading the Raptors to an NBA Championship in 2019. However, the Raptors didn’t do much winning in the playoffs outside of the championship run, winning only one additional series. Nurse will now be in a similar position in Philadelphia, tasked with taking the 76ers past the second round for the first time since 2001.

🏆 Knights DOMINATE Stars, advance to Stanley Cup Final. The Vegas Golden Knights are headed back to the Stanley Cup Final, defeating the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Finals on Monday. Vegas jumped out to an early 3-0 series lead, but lost consecutive games to give the Stars a glimmer of hope. Vegas clearly didn’t dwell on those losses though, responding with six total goals, three of which came in the first period, while holding Dallas to zero in Game 6 to win the series. The Golden Knights will take on the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final, looking to avenge their 2018 Finals loss to the Washington Capitals in their inaugural season.

There are 15 MLB games scheduled to take place on Tuesday, with several teams getting back in on the action after having Memorial Day off. However, due to gaps in the early season data, our model has predictions for 12 of today’s matchups.

San Diego Padres @ Miami Marlins

Model Predicts- Padres ML, OVER 8, Padres +1.5

The San Diego Padres and Miami Marlins will begin a three-game series on Tuesday evening, the first meeting of the year between the two squads.

San Diego has had an abysmal start to the 2023 season, entering today with a 24-29 record and in fourth place in the AL West. The Padres most recently lost two of three games against the New York Yankees, showing that improvement on their poor record may still be further in the future.

On the other hand, Miami has strung together a great season up to this point, marked by 28 wins and 26 losses. Last season the Marlins won 69 games, but Miami appears to be well on track to shatter that win total in 2023.

Despite being an underdog, our model gives the Padres an eye-opening advantage in this matchup and believes they should be the favorite. Will we see that prediction come to fruition, or will Miami continue its stellar season and grab its 29th win of the year?

San Diego Padres

To say the San Diego Padres have been a disappointment would be an understatement. This team had high hopes after making the NLCS last season, but San Diego finds itself 8.0 games back of first place in its own division, making that a tough task to repeat.

Despite all of the heavy bats in the lineup, San Diego has struggled mightily at the plate, especially against right-handed pitching. Per ESPN, San Diego owns a .207 batting average and .674 OPS against right-handed pitchers, compared to .251 and .756 against southpaws.

Speaking of southpaws, Ryan Weathers (1-3 record, 3.94 ERA) will get the start on the mound for San Diego. After a strong start to the season Weathers has begun to regress, allowing eight earned runs in his last 11.2 innings, but his 3.49 xERA shows that some improvement could be on the way.

Weathers’ biggest problem is that he is often pitching to contact. Luckily opposing hitters aren’t hitting the ball hard against him, as evidenced by 27.3% Hard Hit rate and 87.5 mph Exit Velocity Allowed, but he only strikes out 15.3% of hitters. That ranks in the bottom 9% of the majors this season, per Baseball Savant.

Behind Weathers is a bullpen that owns a 3.32 ERA, the sixth-best in the MLB. However, according to Fangraphs San Diego’s relievers have posted a 4.19 xFIP, hinting that we could see Miami score in the late stages of today’s matchup.

Miami Marlins

Sandy Alcantara was awesome last season, posting a 2.28 ERA on his way to winning the NL Cy Young award. However, Alcantara has come nowhere close to repeating that kind of success in 2023.

Alcantara enters today with a 4.86 ERA, more than 2.5 runs higher than last season. Baseball Savant has his xERA sitting at 4.25 so the early struggles might not be all his fault, but neither number is pleasant.

The bad performances are starting to pile up for Miami’s ace. He hasn’t lost any velocity, but his 21.6% strikeout rate is down from 23.4% a season ago. Alcantara has compounded that with less control on the mound, resulting in a 7.6% walk rate, up from 5.6% in 2023.

Luckily the Marlins have gotten the bats going this season, especially against left-handed pitching. The Marlins are hitting a tremendous .298 against lefties this season with a .804 OPS, per ESPN. Miami also owns a 119 wRC+ against lefties, the fourth highest in the MLB.

Even if Alcantara’s struggles continue, Miami should be able to provide plenty of run support.

What’s the Play?

Some star power will be missing from today’s matchup, with Jazz Chisholm and Manny Machado both on the IL. However, some big names, such as Jesús Sánchez and Juan Soto, are expected to be back in the lineup today. As a result, we agree with our model on the over here despite only giving it a 50.93% chance to hit.

Miami’s success against lefties can’t be ignored. The Marlins are amongst the league’s best in that regard, and considering Weathers’ recent struggles and his inability to strike batters out, we can see the Marlins getting on the board enough to get this total above eight.

San Diego is in a great spot as well. The Padres can’t hit righties at all, but Alcantara is not the ace that he was last season and that can get San Diego back in the swing of things. We just saw them tag Gerrit Cole for six runs on Sunday, so who says that can’t happen again?

We feel comfortable with the over in this matchup, and we might even be sprinkling the Padres money line since the model gives them a significant advantage compared to their odds.

3-star play: Over 8 (-105)

Money Line Trends💰

• Texas Rangers- 34-19 overall this season, 18-11 as the away team

• San Francisco Giants- 28-26 overall this season, have won seven of the last ten games

• Los Angeles Dodgers- 33-22 overall this season, 18-7 as the home team

Over/Under Trends⬆️⬇️

• Detroit Tigers- Over is 28-23-1 this season, 15-10 as the home team

• Minnesota Twins- Under is 28-23-3 this season, 13-12-1 as the away team

• Atlanta Braves- Over is 31-20-3 this season, 12-11-2 as the away team

Run Line Trends➕➖

• Atlanta Braves- Run line is 10-9 overall as a road favorite

• Washington Nationals- Run line is 34-20 overall this season, 20-6 as a road underdog

Various injuries around the league. See full injury report at MLB.com

💪 Marcus Stroman shuts down Tampa Bay. Marcus Stroman put on a show yesterday afternoon against the Tampa Bay Rays, the MLB’s best team. Stroman carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning, which was eventually broken up by a single from Wander Franco. That would be the only hit allowed by Stroman for the rest of the rest of the game, as he would go all 9.0 innings in a 1-0 Cubs victory, striking out eight batters along the way.

🏟 Welcome back, Royce Lewis. On May 29th, 2022, Twins infielder Royce Lewis tore his ACL. The injury held the former No.1 overall pick out for an entire year, but he made his return to the majors in a big way with a home run in the top of third inning against the Astros on Monday. Lewis also tied the game with a single in the top of the ninth inning, which set up Minnesota to win the game 7-5 in extra innings. The Twins now own a 28-26 record, two games ahead of the Tigers in the American League Central.

🤕Baltimore loses Cedric Mullins to injury. The Baltimore Orioles have strung together a fantastic season so far, but the Orioles received some bad news regarding one of its star players. Outfielder Cedric Mullins left Monday’s game against the Guardians with what is being called a right abductor/groin strain, which he appeared to suffer as he was trying to beat out a ground ball. Mullins was a huge piece of the Orioles offense, hitting .266 with 39 RBIs, 13 steals, and 23 extra-base hits. A timeline for his return has yet to announced.

🏆 Notre Dame beats Duke in Lacrosse National Championship. For those of you that don’t keep up with lacrosse the NCAA Lacrosse National Championship was held yesterday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish battling the Duke Blue Devils. Notre Dame took a 6-1 lead into the half, but the Blue Devils stormed back in the second half and eventually tied the game at seven to make a run at the title. However, the Fighting Irish had just enough gas left in the tank, winning the game 13-9 for the first Lacrosse National Championship in program history.

1️⃣ Wake Forest named No.1 overall seed for NCAA Baseball Tournament. While one NCAA tournament just ended, another is set to begin. The NCAA Baseball Tournament is just around the corner, and the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest have been crowned as the tournament’s No.1 overall seed. Wake Forest led the nation in wins during the regular season, and shockingly did not lose consecutive games in 2023. The 64-team tournament begins on Friday, June 2nd, with the winners of those matchups advancing to the super regionals. Winners of the super regionals will advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

🏎 Ryan Blaney wins Coca-Cola 600. NASCAR doesn’t often make our headlines, but yesterday’s Coca-Cola 600 was definitely newsworthy. Ryan Blaney was the winner of the event, snapping a 59 race losing streak. Blaney took the lead on a restart and led for the final 26 laps, giving him his first Cup Series win since 2021. Blaney’s win was also a major victory for team owner Roger Penske, who was part of Josef Newgarden’s victory at the Indy 500 on Sunday.

Today’s trivia requires you to dig into multiple pockets of your brain, testing your knowledge of recent events as well as those that happened decades ago.

See how many of the below questions you can get correct. Answers are provided at the end of the newsletter.

Question #1- Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame was created in 1936 with the induction of five members. Four of those members were Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson, but who was the fifth member of the inaugural class?

Question #2- Every year a Gold Glove Award is given to the best defensive player at each fielding position in the National and American League. One MLB player won the award 16 consecutive times as a third baseman, earning his the nickname “The Human Vacuum Cleaner”. Who was that player?

Question #3- Pat Riley is the current president of the Miami Heat, but before beginning a career as a coach and executive he actually played in the NBA. Riley was a member of three teams in his career- the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, and what other team?

Anyone know what has happened on May 30th throughout history? We didn’t have a clue either, but it appears that it has been a busy day.

On May 30th…

1922- The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs make a trade in between a doubleheader. Max Flack was traded to St. Louis and Cliff Heathcote was traded to Chicago following the first game of the doubleheader. Both players would go on to get a hit in Game 2 with their new team, proving a change of scenery isn’t always a bad thing.

1985- The Edmonton Oilers defeat the Philadelphia Flyers by a score of 8-3 in the Stanley Cup Final. The win was Edmonton’s second Stanley Cup in as many years, and the team would go on to win two more titles in 1987 and 1988. Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri were the stars of the show, each scoring one goal and posting three assists in the final game of the series.

1986- Barry Bonds makes his major league debut for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bonds didn’t make a great impression in his first MLB game, going 0-5 with three strikeouts in a 6-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, as we all know Bonds would rebound quite nicely from that performance, ending his career with an MLB record 762 home runs and winning the MVP award seven times. He would play as a member of the Pirates for the first seven years of his career before signing with the San Francisco Giants as a free agent in 1993.

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1. Honus Wagner

2. Brooks Robinson

3. San Diego Rockets (Now known as the Houston Rockets)