In today’s SportSense Entertainment Newsletter…

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

Money Line Predictions: 1-0

Over/Under Predictions: 1-0

Puck Line Predictions: 0-1

3-star Predictions: 0-0

Money Line Predictions: 6-6

Over/Under Predictions: 6-6

Run Line Predictions: 6-6

3-star Predictions: 1-0

🏆 Vegas DOMINATES Florida in Game 5, wins first Stanley Cup in franchise history. The Las Vegas Golden Knights came into the NHL in 2017 as an expansion team, yet made the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season. Vegas lost that series to the Washington Capitals, but avenged that defeat with a 4-1 series victory over the Florida Panthers after a dominant 9-3 win in Game 5 last night. Sergei Bobrovsky had no answers for a Vegas offense that ripped off 32 shots on goal, but Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill stopped 32 of the 35 shot attempts he faced, including 19 of 21 in the third period. Mark Stone was the star of the show from a scoring standpoint, netting one goal in each period, and Jonathan Marchessault was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy, the award given to the MVP of the playoffs.

💰 The Ottawa Senators finally found a new owner. The Ottawa Senators first went up for sale in November of 2022, but yesterday the team was finally purchased by billionaire Michael Andlauer. The deal is reportedly worth $950 million, per Pierre LeBrun, but is still pending approval from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHL’s executive board. Andlauer is also a minority owner of the Montreal Canadiens, so in order for the deal to go through he must sell that stake. Several groups were in the race for the Senators at one point, including ownership groups featuring actor Ryan Reynolds and rapper Snoop Dogg, but Andlauer was the man to come out on top.

✍️ Rangers hire Peter Laviolette to be team’s head coach. The New York Rangers and Peter Laviolette have reportedly come to an agreement to make Laviolette New York’s new bench boss. Gerard Gallant was fired shortly after New York’s first-round loss to the New Jersey Devils in the playoffs, keeping the head coaching position vacant for almost two months. Laviolette was most recently the coach of the Washington Capitals, posting a 115-78-27 record in three season with Washington, and has also been the bench boss for the Islanders, Hurricanes, Flyers, and Predators in his career.

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

Colorado Rockies @ Boston Red Sox

Model Predicts- Red Sox ML, Over 9.5, Red Sox -1.5

The Colorado Rockies and Boston Red Sox will end a three-game series on Wednesday evening at Fenway park.

Colorado has full control of the series, winning Game 1 4-3 and Game 2 7-6 in extra innings. The Rockies are now on a three-game win streak, a much needed turn around after losing the six straight games.

Boston has slowly slid down the AL East standings, and after last night’s loss finds itself in fifth in the division with a 33-35 record. Boston does have a slight advantage on the mound today though, but will that be enough to get the Red Sox back in the win column?

Colorado Rockies

The Colorado Rockies haven’t strung together a good season in quite some time, last finishing above .500 in 2018. This year has been more of the same, with Colorado entering tonight’s matchup with a 29-40 record, good enough for fifth place in the NL West.

However, as previously mentioned the Rockies are currently in the midst of a three-game win streak. The Colorado offense has scored at least four runs in all three matchups while the pitching staff posted a 4.00 ERA and 3.77 xFIP in that time, per Fangraphs, signs of improvement at the plate and on the mound.

However, Austin Gomber (4-5 record, 7.57 ERA) will take the mound today for the Rockies, putting Colorado’s win streak in jeopardy.

Gomber sits at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to MLB pitchers. He often struggles to strike opposing batters out, as evidenced by 14.0% strikeout rate, and as a result contact is often made when he is on the mound. Gomber ranks in the bottom 10% of the majors in Whiff % and owns a 90.4 mph average exit velocity allowed, per Baseball Savant, which puts him in the bottom 25%.

The low whiff rate and high ERA are likely due to Gomber being predictable while on the mound. His most commonly thrown pitch is his 4-seam fastball, which he throws 42.7% of the time. As a result, opposing hitters often sit on this pitch, which has an average velocity of just 90.7 mph, and oftentimes crush it.

Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox are in a slump at a very bad time, losing eight of 13 games since the calendar flipped to June.

The offense shoulders much of the blame for the poor start to the month and slide in the standings. According to Fangraphs, Boston has posted a 104 wRC+ for the entire 2023 season, 11th in the MLB, but since June 1st that number has sank to 89. The Sox are also batting just .233 with a .696 OPS in that time.

As a result, Boston has only scored more than three runs just once in the last seven games. That one time was last night in a 10 inning game, a matchup where the Red Sox scored four runs after nine innings.

Boston better hope it can reverse that scoring trend because tonight’s starting pitcher, Garrett Whitlock (3-2 record, 4.78 ERA) is a bit of a wild card on the mound.

Whitlock has been all over the place as of late, alternating between allowing either one earned run or 4+ earned runs in his last six starts. One major concern for Whitlock entering today is his 10.1% Barrel rate, showing that opposing hitters size him up well. That has been the case in his last six starts, allowing six home runs in that span of time.

What’s the Play?

Neither starting pitcher in tonight’s matchup has convinced us enough to confidently pick the winner, but we do believe that the over is a 3-star play.

Austin Gomber has been terrible on the mound, and it doesn’t look like things will get better. Gomber owns a 7.62 xERA, which ranks in the bottom 2% of the majors. His xERA is right at his abysmal season ERA, showing that the struggles on the mound are not the result of bad luck, just consistently bad pitching. That gives the Red Sox offense a great opportunity to bounce back tonight.

We also believe the Rockies can keep their hot offense going. Just like Gomber, Garrett Whitlock is rather predictable, throwing his sinker on 51.5% of his pitches. That pitch often gets crushed too, resulting in a .340 batting average for opposing hitters. Additionally, Colorado is batting .268 with a .749 OPS against right-handed pitchers this season, which Whitlock is. That is much better than Colorado’s splits against lefties (.229 BA, .650 OPS), per ESPN.

Neither starter is particularly strong on the mound and usually gives up runs in bunches, so we will back the over in this matchup, which our model gives a 57.54% chance of hitting.

3-star play: Over 9.5 (-115)

Money Line Trends💰

• Baltimore Orioles- 42-24 overall this season, 21-12 as the home team, and 12-7 against AL East opponents (play AL East rival Toronto today)

• Texas Rangers- 41-25 overall this season, 21-11 as the home team

• Arizona Diamondbacks- 41-26 overall this season, 21-15 as the home team

Over/Under Trends ⬆️⬇️

• Boston Red Sox- Over is 37-29-2 overall this season, 22-12-1 as the home team

• Cleveland Guardians- Under is 39-25-2 this season, 17-15-1 as the away team

• San Diego Padres- Under is 42-22-2 this season, highest win % in MLB

Run Line Trends➕➖

• Los Angeles Dodgers- Run line is 38-29 overall this season, 18-11 as a home favorite

• Cleveland Guardians- Run line is 14-6 as a road underdog

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

🔄 A reverse boycott took place in Oakland yesterday. The Oakland Athletics have failed to get many fans to show up to their home games this season, even selling tickets for as little as $3. However, A’s fans showed out yesterday to protest Oakland’s proposed move to Las Vegas, chanting “sell the team” all throughout the stadium. 27,759 fans attended yesterday’s game, up from Oakland’s average home attendance in 2023 of just 8,555. Maybe the protest will make ownership rethink the move to Las Vegas, but at the very least it helped the Athletics win their seventh straight game.

👋 Mets pitcher Drew Smith gets ejected before throwing a single pitch. New York Mets pitcher Drew Smith was called upon to pitch with the Mets trailing the Yankees 7-6, but never got the opportunity to throw a single pitch. Smith immediately failed the sticky-substance check when he got to the mound, resulting in his ejection. Smith becomes the third player this season, and second Mets player, to be ejected for an illegal sticky substance and will now face a 10-game suspension unless he wins his appeal.

🤕 Mitch Haniger fractures forearm after being hit by pitch. San Francisco Giants outfielder Mitch Haniger fractured his right forearm after he was hit by a pitch from St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty in the third inning of last night’s game. The hit-by-pitch didn’t sit well with some Giants players, particularly LaMonte Wade Jr., causing the dugouts and bullpens to clear. It is unclear how long Haniger will be absent from the lineup.

👀 Stefon Diggs was a no-show at Bills minicamp. Buffalo Bills star wide receiver Stefon Diggs failed to make an appearance to Buffalo’s mandatory minicamp on Tuesday. Head coach Sean McDermott said he is “very concerned” about Diggs’ absence, which is likely the general feeling around the entire locker room and front office. Some of you may not remember, but Diggs and Josh Allen got into a heated dispute on the sideline during Buffalo’s 27-10 loss to Cincinnati in the playoffs, prompting speculation that there is trouble in paradise for arguably the league’s best quarterback-wide receiver duo. Diggs signed a 4-year, $96 million extension in 2022 that will keep him with the Bills through 2027, but who knows if that contract will be fulfilled.

✈️ Jets add Adrian Amos to secondary. The New York Jets have been one of the more talked about teams this offseason due trading for Aaron Rodgers, and now the Jets have added another former Packer to the roster. Per Jordan Schultz, New York has signed Adrian Amos to a one-year, $4 million contract, giving an already solid secondary a boost. Amos played a huge role for Green Bay, starting every game since 2019 and recording a career-high 102 tackles last season.

🔥 Indiana Fever snap six-game losing streak thanks to Aliyah Boston’s historic night. The Indiana Fever were in the midst of a brutal six-game losing streak, but rookie Aliyah Boston’s performance got the Fever back in the win column after an 87-66 win over the Mystics on Tuesday. Boston scored 23 points in the matchup on 11/14 shooting to go along with 14 rebounds and six assists, becoming the youngest player in WNBA history with a game of 20 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists on 75% shooting or better. The win also marked Indiana’s first home win of the season and first double-digit victory since 2021.

Guess that player!

We’ll list the year, round pick, and team that made the selection of some NBA and NFL players, and you have to guess who the player is.

Player 1- 1998 / Round 1 / Pick 5 / Golden State Warriors

Player 2- 2007 / Round 1 / Pick 2 / Seattle Supersonics

Player 3- 2011 / Round 2 / Pick 60 / Sacramento Kings

Player 1- 1989 / Round 1 / Pick 5 / Atlanta Falcons

Player 2- 2004 / Round 1 / Pick 1 / San Diego Chargers

Player 3- 2010 / Round 2 / Pick 42 / New England Patriots

Anyone know what has happened on June 13th throughout history? We didn’t have a clue either, but it appears that it has been an interesting day.

On June 13th…

1974- Nolan Ryan strikes out 19 batters in 13 innings in a 4-3 Angels win over the Red Sox. Ryan faced an incredible 58 batters in the game, and his 19 strikeouts are tied for the second most in a game in MLB history. The game wouldn’t end until the 15th inning, and Ryan would eventually turn things over to Barry Raziano for the final two innings, likely because his arm was starting to fall off.

1990- The Detroit Pistons defeat the Portland Trail Blazers 92-90 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. On paper the series was dead even, with both Detroit and Portland ending the regular season with a 59-23 record. However, the Bad Boys proved to be too much to handle, giving the Pistons their second consecutive NBA title. Isiah Thomas was named MVP of the series, one in which had five future Hall of Famers.

2021- Cristiano Ronaldo removes the Coca-Cola bottle from a table he was seated at during the press conference, later saying that people should “drink water” instead. On the surface it doesn’t seem that crazy for one of world’s best athletes to suggest that, but the move caused Coca-Cola’s market value to tumble $4 billion.

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NBA Answers

1. Vince Carter

2. Kevin Durant

3. Isaiah Thomas

NFL Answers

1. Deion Sanders

2. Eli Manning

3. Rob Gronkowski