In today’s SportSense Entertainment Newsletter…

There were plenty of predictions to go around yesterday across the 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 the rest of the model performed below.

Money Line Predictions: 5-7

Over/Under Predictions: 6-6

Run Line Predictions: 6-6

3-star Predictions: 0-0

🎽 LeBron James switching back to No.23. Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James will change his jersey number back to 23, just two seasons after changing to No.6. James’ agent, Rich Paul, said that James will leave the No.6 behind out of respect for NBA legend Bill Russell, who passed away in July 2022 and wore the No.6 his entire career. The NBA announced a league-wide retirement of the No.6 following his death, but allowed players already wearing the number to continue to do so.

🦖 Toronto is reportedly interested in Tyler Herro. Several teams, including the Brooklyn Nets and Utah Jazz, have been linked to Tyler Herro ever since Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard requested a trade, and now the Toronto Raptors can be added to that list. According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Raptors have expressed “exploratory interest” in acquiring the Heat guard in a three-team trade that would involve Miami and the Portland Trail Blazers. Herro, a former Sixth Man of the Year award winner, is coming off a season in which he averaged 20.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game while shooting 38.7% from three.

There are 15 MLB games scheduled to take place throughout this afternoon and evening. You can see our model predictions for each matchup below.

Cleveland Guardians @ Texas Rangers

Model Predicts- Guardians ML, OVER 9, Guardians +1.5

The Cleveland Guardians and Texas Rangers will wrap up a three-game series on Sunday afternoon in Arlington.

Texas has a firm grasp over the series, winning Game 1 by a score of 12-4 and squeezing out a 2-0 victory in Game 2. However, the Rangers are just 4-7 in their last ten games dating back to the start of July.

Records show that the Rangers are the far better team, but the matchup on the mound makes our model lean towards Cleveland this afternoon. Will we see that prediction come to fruition, or will Texas finish off the sweep at home?

Cleveland Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians enter today’s matchup with a 45-47 record, recently falling out of first place in the abysmal AL Central.

A lot of the blame for this season’s shortcomings can be blamed on Cleveland’s offense, which enters today ranked 24th in wRC+. The Guardians also rank 26th in OPS at .688, per TeamRankings.

However, it’s not all bad for Cleveland at the plate this season.

Fangraph’s lists the Guardians with a 18.8% team strikeout rate, tied with Washington for the best mark in the majors and has improved to 17.9% in July. They also own a .295 BABIP in 2023, and that has risen to .307 this month.

The offense, while still not overpowering, is trending in the right direction as we enter the second half of the season. That will likely go a long way in helping today’s starting pitcher, Tanner Bibee (5-2 record, 3.34 ERA), hold and maintain a lead this afternoon.

Bibee has been excellent across his last three starts, posting a 1.11 ERA and striking out 20 batters in 16.2 innings. He doesn’t often generate many swings and misses, but his 6.6% Barrel rate and .226 xBA (expected batting average) show that opposing hitters are having a hard time sizing him up.

Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers have been neck and neck with the Atlanta Braves when it comes to being the best offense in baseball. Texas ranks first in the majors in wRC+ (123) and second in OPS (.806), showing that this team has heavy hitters at every point in the lineup.

Having so many consistent hitters will always put a team in a position to win, but the Rangers’ pitching staff has been vulnerable to blowing up at times and losing games.

The bullpen has been responsible for a majority of this season’s collapses. Texas’ relievers own the seventh worst ERA in the majors (4.44), simultaneously ranking in the bottom 12 in xFIP (4.35). What’s more concerning is that the group’s ERA has spiked to 5.26 in the month of July, showing that things aren’t getting any better.

To make matters worse, Texas will trot Martín Pérez (7-3 record, 4.81 ERA) out onto the mound to start today’s matchup.

Pérez has regressed mightily from the 2022 season, seeing his ERA rise by 1.92 runs, per Baseball Savant. A large part of the reason why is because Pérez isn’t fooling many hitters, ranking in the bottom 5% of the MLB in Whiff and strikeout rate. Additionally, his three most commonly thrown pitches, a sinker, changeup, and cutter, all own an xBA of .273 or higher, putting him in the bottom 5% of the majors in that category as well.

What’s the Play?

There’s no question who the better offense is in this game. However, Texas’ instability on the mound may not give the Rangers offense a chance to keep things close.

The only thing Pérez had going for him was his terrific starts at home, which is where Texas is today. However, he has posted a 6.87 ERA in his last three home starts, throwing that advantage out the window.

Pérez also owns a 5.39 xERA compared to a 4.81 real ERA, showing that things could get worse for him. Meanwhile, Bibee owns a 3.53 xERA against a 3.34 ERA, showing that reality pretty much lines up with expectations.

It’s tough to trust the Cleveland offense, but going up against Pérez and having Bibee on the mound gives them a chance to avoid the sweep. We’ll back the Guardians as underdogs this afternoon.

3-star play: Guardians ML (+110)

Money Line Trends 💰

• Philadelphia Phillies- 50-42 overall this season, 24-17 as the home team

• Arizona Diamondbacks- 52-41 overall this season, 14-11 as a road underdog

• Los Angeles Dodgers- 53-38 overall this season, have won six straight games

Over/Under Trends ⬆️⬇️

• Pittsburgh Pirates- Over is 45-43-4 this season, 24-19-2 as the home team

• Milwaukee Brewers- Under is 48-41-4 this season, 25-19-2 as the away team

• Texas Rangers- Over is 48-37-8 this season, 27-14-6 as the home team

Run Line Trends ➕➖

• Washington Nationals- Run line is 52-40 overall this season, 50-39 as an underdog

• Detroit Tigers- Run line is 49-42 overall this season, 25-17 as a road underdog

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

💪 Tampa Bay becomes first team to reach 60 wins. The Tampa Bay Rays were the first team to reach the 60 win mark in the 2023 season on Saturday. The Rays took care of business in a doubleheader against the Kansas City Royals, defeating the second-worst team in the majors 6-1 in Game 1 and 4-2 in Game 2. The Royals dropped to 26-67 on the season and are now 21.0 games back of first place in the AL Central, while Tampa Bay sits at 60-35 and owns a two-game lead over the Orioles in the AL East.

💥 Manny Machado hits 300th career homer in loss to Philadelphia. San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado has been known as a slugger for a long time, with his power allowing him to reach the 300 home run mark for his career yesterday at Citizens Bank Park. Machado became the 11th active player to reach the milestone, joining Evan Longoria and Nolan Arenado as the only third basemen on the list. However, the homer didn’t do much in the grand scheme of things, with San Diego losing Game 1 (6-4) and Game 2 (9-4) on Saturday.

🤕 Guardians place Shane Bieber on the IL. Cleveland Guardians pitcher Shane Bieber landed on the 15-day injured list yesterday with what the team is calling a forearm injury, per Mandy Bell of MLB.com. Bieber underwent an MRI on Friday, with the results revealing right-elbow inflammation. The 28-year-old has spent his entire six-year career in Cleveland, posting a 5-6 record and 3.77 ERA in 2023.

🐬 Tyreek Hill has big expectations for himself and the Dolphins this season. Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill is no stranger to the headlines, and the star wideout is center stage once again after his comments regarding the upcoming 2023-24 season. Hill, who is entering his second season with Miami, said on the “It Needed To Be Said” podcast that he will break the 2,000 yard mark and the Dolphins will win another Super Bowl this season. Only two players in NFL history, Calvin Johnson and Cooper Kupp, have tallied more than 1,900 yards in a single season, and Hill’s career high sits at 1,710.

⛳️ Rory McIlroy still going strong at Scottish Open. Rory McIlroy (-13) continued his stellar play at the Scottish Open on Saturday, shooting a 3-under 67 to keep a one-shot lead over Joohyung Kim. McIlroy still struggled on the greens despite maintaining the lead, missing a three-foot eagle putt and a five-foot birdie putt on the day. McIlroy has still yet to win a professional event in Scotland in his career, but is in a great position to do so on Sunday as he tries to hold off Kim (-12), Brian Harman (-11), Tommy Fleetwood (-11), and five other golfers sitting at 10-under par.

😳 NCAA vacates Tennessee’s wins from 2019 and 2020. The Tennessee Volunteer football program was handed an $8 million fine on Friday after an investigation revealed more than 200 infractions occurred during Jeremy Pruitt’s coaching tenure. Most of the infractions involved Tennessee’s recruiting process, and instead of a postseason ban the Volunteers will be forced to vacate all 11 wins from the 2019 and 2020 seasons, per Chris Low of ESPN. Tennessee’s official record book will be changed to reflect the sanctions, resulting in an 0-5 record in 2019 and 0-7 record in 2020. Pruitt will be credited with a 5-19 record.

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- There have been plenty of undrafted players who went on to have a successful NFL career, but only one undrafted quarterback has gone on to win the Super Bowl. Who is that player?

Question #2- The Detroit Pistons and Denver Nuggets went to battle in a three overtime game in 1983, a matchup that would later become the highest-scoring game in NBA history. How many points did the Pistons score in that matchup?

Question #3- The Oakland Athletics’ originally began in Philadelphia before moving to the West Coast. However, the Athletics called one midwest city home in between their stay in Philadelphia and Oakland. What was that city?

Anyone know what has happened on July 16th throughout history? We didn’t have a clue either, but it appears that it has been a busy day.

On July 16th…

1941- New York Yankees legend Joe Dimaggio goes 3 for 4 at the plate in a 10-3 victory over the Cleveland Indians, extending his hitting streak to 56 games. The streak became the longest in MLB history, and to this day remains the longest by any player. Dimaggio is widely considered to be one of the greatest hitters the MLB has ever seen, going on to end his career with 2,214 hits and a .325 batting average despite serving in World War II from 1943-1945.

1947- Bobo Newsom wins his 200th game of his career in a 8-5 victory over the Atlanta Braves. The win was also the first for Newsom in a Yankees uniform after being acquired from Washington. Newsom would play for the Yankees for just one season, but tallied a 7-5 record and 2.80 ERA on his way to helping New York win the World Series. He would retire following the 1953 season after a brief stint with the Philadelphia Athletics, one of nine teams that he played for during his 20-year career.

1987- Don Mattingly hits his fourth grand slam of the season and ties the AL record for consecutive games with a home run at six. Mattingly would stretch the hot hitting streak two more games, hitting a home run in each to tie Dale Long’s major league record for consecutive games with a homer (8). That remains the record to this day, with the most recent player to tie the record being Ken Griffey Jr. in 1993.

1. Kurt Warner

2. 186

3. Kansas City