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. Those predictions went 0-1 overall, and you can see how each of the models performed below.

Money Line Predictions: 5-7

Over/Under Predictions: 6-5-1

Run Line Predictions: 10-2

3-star Predictions: 0-1

👀 Phoenix and Miami have their eyes on Bradley Beal. The Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat have emerged as the finalists in the Bradley Beal sweepstakes, per Shams Charania. Beal and the Washington Wizards have agreed to look for trade partners for the three-time All-Star as Washington heads into a rebuild, meaning we will likely see Beal in a different NBA uniform next season after playing his first 11 seasons with the Wizards. The Heat have been attached to many Beal rumors over the last two seasons, but Phoenix recently came into the mix after Chris Paul and DeAndre Ayton’s futures with the team were called into question. Both squads could use Beal on the offensive end, with Miami averaging the fewest points per game in 2022-23 and Phoenix not having many scoring options outside of Devin Booker and Kevin Durant.

🙌 Lou Williams officially retires from basketball. After 17 season as a member of the NBA, Lou Williams announced on Instagram that he has officially called it a career. Williams was drafted 45th overall in 2005 out of South Gwinnett High School by the Philadelphia 76ers, where he would play for the first eight years of his career. His time with Philadelphia was full of ups and downs, but Williams eventually found his stride with the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, winning the Sixth-Man of the Year award three times while playing for those teams. Williams was most recently a member of the Atlanta Hawks during the 2021-22 season, the team that beat the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinal.

There are 16 MLB games scheduled to take place throughout this afternoon and evening. However, due to gaps in the season data and our model not predicting outcomes to double-headers because of lineup uncertainty, our model has predictions for 13 of today’s matchups.

San Francisco Giants @ Los Angeles Dodgers

Model Predicts- Giants ML, OVER 8.5, Giants +1.5

The San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers will wrap up a three-game series on Sunday afternoon in sunny Los Angeles.

San Francisco took the first two games of the series against its NL West rival, defeating the Dodgers 7-5 Game 1 and 15-0 last night in Game 2.

The Giants have been one of the hottest teams in the MLB over the last month, and our model believes the Giants are in position to tack on another win this afternoon. Will we see that prediction come to fruition, or can the Dodgers pick themselves up after an embarrassing loss on Saturday?

San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants look unstoppable at the moment, entering today on a six-game win streak and having won 21 of their last 30 games.

The Giants’ win streak began last Sunday with a dominant 13-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs. San Fran tallied four errors in that matchup, but 15 hits and four home runs made up for the abysmal defense rather easily.

That offensive performance was just the tip of the iceberg for the Giants, outscoring opponents 45-16 across the next five games. Fangraphs lists the Giants with a 158 wRC+ and .391 BABIP in the last six games, both of which rank first in the MLB in that time, further proving just how awesome this team has been at the plate.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Giants’ pitching staff has dominated the last six games as well, posting a league-leading 2.68 ERA in that time. Logan Webb (5-6 record, 3.15 ERA) was already a part of one of those performances, and he will get another stab at it this afternoon.

Webb has been excellent at limiting the amount of opposing hitters that get on base, as evidenced by his 1.08 WHIP. His biggest strength on the mound is his control, posting a 4.7% walk rate in 2023, ranking Webb in the top 6% of the majors according to Baseball Savant. He is also striking out 25.2% of batters he faces, up from 20.7% a season ago.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers are struggling to stay in the win column for multiple games. Since June 1st Los Angeles is 5-9 overall, failing to win consecutive games at any point in that stretch.

The bullpen has played a huge role in the Dodgers’ demise. Fangraphs has LA’s relievers listed with a 7.18 ERA in the month of June, the worst mark in the MLB by nearly one run. The group’s xFIP does come in at 3.98, which ranks in the top-10, but a .377 BABIP is simply not going to get the job done in the late stages of any game.

Tony Gonsolin (4-1 record, 1.93 ERA) will be in charge of keeping the struggling bullpen locked up as today’s starter. His surface level numbers are great, but there are still plenty of concerns regarding Gonsolin’s performance in 2023.

The most eye-popping statistic of Gonsolin’s is his xERA, which comes in more than two runs higher than his season ERA at 4.13, per Baseball Savant. That xERA comes about because of Gonsolin’s poor strikeout and walk rates, which sit at 18.9% and 9.4%, respectively.

What’s the Play?

Both of today’s starting pitchers have their flaws. Webb struggles with allowing hard contact, ranking in the bottom 16% of the majors in Hard Hit rate and Average Exit Velocity allowed, and Gonsolin can’t seem to fool many hitters at the plate.

However, we agree with our model that Webb and the Giants are in position to win their seventh consecutive game this afternoon.

It’s likely that we see both lineups get some runs off of each starter, but the lack of strength in the back half of the game puts the Dodgers in a bad spot. In Game 1 of this series the Dodgers’ bullpen surrendered five runs before extra innings began, and last night allowed eight runs in just 3.1 innings.

Our model believes that San Francisco should be favored here, giving the Giants odds of -115. So, we’ll gladly take the Giants as an underdog this afternoon.

3-star play: Giants ML (+105)

Money Line Trends💰

• Baltimore Orioles- 43-27 overall this season, 21-14 as the away team

• Philadelphia Phillies- 37-34 overall this season, have won eight of last ten games

• San Francisco Giants- 38-32 overall this season, have won six consecutive games

Over/Under Trends ⬆️⬇️

• New York Mets- Under is 38-31-1 this season, 20-11 as the home team

• Los Angeles Dodgers- Over is 39-27-5 this season, 4-0 in last four games

• San Diego Padres- Under is 44-23-3 this season, highest win percentage in MLB

Run Line Trends➕➖

• Cincinnati Reds- Run line is 44-27 overall this season, 22-9 as a road underdog

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

💪 San Francisco DOMINATES the Dodgers for sixth straight win. The San Francisco Giants blew the doors off of an NL West rival on Saturday night, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 15-0. San Fran tallied 17 hits in the game compared to just six for LA, scoring three or more runs in four of the final five innings. The win was the Giants’ largest margin of victory over the Dodgers since defeating Los Angeles 19-3 in 2013, and it matched the largest shutout loss in Dodgers history. Los Angeles gets a chance at redemption this afternoon, hoping to get back in the win column after posting a 5-9 record in June.

🔥 Cincinnati stays red hot with win over the Astros. The Cincinnati Reds extended their win streak to seven games following a 10-3 victory over the Houston Astros. Cincinnati now owns the longest active win streak in the majors, and it is the first time the Reds have won seven consecutive games since 2018. The victory pushed the Reds higher up the NL Central standings, now sitting just 0.5 games back of the Milwaukee Brewers in first place.

💥 Ohtani takes over the MLB lead in home runs. Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani took over the MLB lead in home runs with a 437 foot nuke to center field in yesterday’s tilt with the Kansas City Royals. The dinger was Ohtani’s 23rd of the season, lifting him one above New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, who was activated off of the injured list earlier this morning. The home run wasn’t enough to keep the Angels’ hot streak going though, falling to the Royals 10-9 after a walk-off single from rookie Samad Taylor, his first hit in the majors.

🏴‍☠️ Buccaneers and Mike Evans negotiating new deal. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and wide receiver Mike Evans have reportedly begun negotiations regarding a new contract, per Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. Evans is entering the final season of a five-year, $82.5 million deal that he signed in 2018, but all signs point towards the Bucs giving one of the most consistent receivers his third contract. Evans has recorded at least 1,000 receiving yards in each of his nine NFL seasons, the only player to begin their career with more than six, but currently ranks 17th among active receivers in average annual salary at $16.5 million.

⛳️ Rickie Fowler, Wyndham Clark sit in first at U.S Open. Three rounds are in the books at the 123rd U.S. Open, and Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark sit at the top of the leaderboard at 10-under par. Fowler came into the day at 10-under and failed to pick up any strokes, while Clark shot 1-under par in the third round to close the gap. Rory McIlroy (-9), Scottie Scheffler (-7), and Harris English (-6) round out the top five heading into what should be an exciting Sunday of golf.

😳 Bob Huggins set to resign as West Virginia coach. West Virginia Men’s Basketball coach Bob Huggins will reportedly step down from his coaching position, per Jeff Goodman. Huggins’ resignation comes after he was arrested in Pittsburgh on Friday for driving under the influence, the second time Huggins made headlines in recent months. The first time he made the news came when he used an anti-gay slur in a radio interview last month. Huggins has been the head coach of the Mountaineers since 2007 and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022, but it appears that one of the most prominent coaches in college basketball will never be seen on the sidelines again.

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- Only five PGA Tour players have ever won the Career Grand Slam, winning all four majors as least once. Four of those players are Jack Niklaus, Tiger Woods, Gene Sarazen, and Ben Hogan, but who is the fifth?

Question #2- The 2018 Super Bowl was won by the Philadelphia Eagles, defeating the New England Patriots 41-33. Despite the loss, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady set the Super Bowl record for passing yards. How many yards did Brady throw for in the game?

Question #3- The triple-double is becoming a more common occurrence throughout the NBA, but the quadruple-double has remained an elusive stat line. In fact, only four players in NBA history have recorded a quadruple-double, three of which were Nate Thurmond, Alvin Robertson, and Hakeem Olajuwon. What is the fourth?

Anyone know what has happened on June 18th throughout history? We didn’t have a clue either, but it appears that it has been a busy day.

On June 18th…

1953- The Boston Red Sox score 17 runs in the seventh inning against the Detroit Tigers, the most runs scored in a single inning in MLB history. Prior to the seventh inning beginning the score was 5-3, but Detroit’s relievers combined to surrender 11 singles, two doubles, one home run, and five walks in the inning. Boston would go on to win the game 23-3 after defeating Detroit 17-1 the day prior.

1986- California Angels pitcher Don Sutton becomes the 19th pitcher to win 300 games in a 5-1 win over the Texas Rangers. The 43-year-old pitched a gem to reach the milestone, surrendering just three hits and shutting Texas out through seven innings. Sutton would go on to win 324 games in his career, 58 of which were shutouts, which puts him in a tie with Nolan Ryan for 14th on the all-time list.

2017- Brooks Koepka wins the U.S. Open with a 16-under-par final score, his first major title of his career. Kopeka ended the tournament four strokes ahead of the rest of the field, tying Rory McIlroy for the lowest score in U.S. Open history. Koepka has won four additional majors since his first victory, most recently winning the PGA Championship one month ago.

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1. Gary Player

2. 505

3. David Robinson