Sports Handicapper ASA's Picks & Predictions

#927/928 ASA PLAY ON Over 7.5 Runs - Oakland Athletics vs Miami Marlins, Sunday at 4:07 PM ET - No, we will not see another 20-4 game but, yes, we are going to see plenty of runs again today. Miami has scored at least 4 runs in 6 of 8 games. We are working with a total of only 7.5 runs in this one and Oakland has won 6 straight games! Even before yesterday's wild 20-4 win, the Athletics had averaged scoring 5 runs in the first 5 games of this now 6-game winning streak. With all the winning Oakland has higher confidence these days and, amazingly, the A's are now a .500 team on the season. Neither team, and in particular Miami, will blow you away with their lineup strength but they each have been scoring decently of late. Also, the Miami bullpen is 3-11 with a 4.97 ERA this season! The Marlins are starting Sixto Sanchez and he has been rocked in both of his starts this season after starting out the year in the bullpen. As for the Athletics Joe Boyle, he has walked 4 batters in each of his last 3 starts even though he has not even averaged 5 innings over this 3-start stretch. Boyle has been struggling with command of his pitches. Taking all of the above into consideration, this combination of factors will help to turn this into a high-scoring back and forth battle. Over is the call in this one Sunday afternoon.

#926 ASA PLAY ON St Louis Cardinals -155 over Chicago White Sox, Sunday at 2:15 PM ET - The White Sox are off a RARE win yesterday. How rare? Chicago entered that game 1-14 on the road this season! It was also a horrible 3rd strike called that ended the game with the Cardinals having the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th. The White Sox are 0-3 this season when they are on the road and coming off a win in their prior game. St Louis will bounce back here after the tough loss in extra frames yesterday. Instead of going with Kyle Gibson here - now being saved for the Mets series coming up -  Matthew Liberatore gets the start for the Cardinals in this one as an opener in what will be a bullpen game. The Cardinals bullpen is solid with a 3.64 ERA on the season and the White Sox are the worst hitting team in the majors with a .209 batting average and .319 slugging percentage and scoring just 2.9 runs per game on the year! The White Sox have a young hurler who previously worked out of the bullpen in his 3 MLB seasons prior to this one. He is a first time starter at the MLB level this season and Garrett Crochet has been charged with 12 earned runs in 7 innings over his last two road starts. We expect more of the same here and the White Sox quickly resume their losing ways and drop to 0-4 on the season in road games when coming off a win in their prior game. Cardinals get the call in this one Sunday.

ASA top play on 10* Cleveland Cavaliers -155 vs. Orlando Magic, 1 PM ET - This series is tied 3-3 with the home team winning 4 times by double-digits and covering every game but one. The Cavaliers won the first two games of the series at home by 14 and 10-points, then won by 1-point which was really four, but the Magic hit a meaningless 3-pointer at the buzzer. The Magic had a fantastic regular season record at 47-35 SU, but the majority of those wins came at home where they were 29-12. On the road in the regular season, they were 18-23 with a negative differential of minus -3.5PPG. The Cavs were still 26-15 SU at home in the regular season with the 11th best average point differential of +3.8PPG. Cleveland was very good off a loss this season with a 23-13 SU record and an average +/- of +2.5PPG. Orlando was 16-15 ATS as an away Dog this season with a net differential per game of minus -6.7PPG. Cleveland was .500 as a home favorite ATS but they did win those games by an average of +6.4PPG. Donovan Mitchell is one of a handful of NBA players to score 50+ points three times in the NBA playoffs and he’s more that capable of carrying this team to a victory. The Magic have a legitimate scorer in Banchero but he’s young and not quite ready for this huge playoff road moment.

#200114 ASA PLAY ON Chelsea over West Ham United, Sunday at 9 AM ET - This one in English Premier League action. Chelsea has gone undefeated in last 7 home games and outscored their opponents by a combined 24 to 11 in that run. West Ham has only won twice in last dozen games. The value with home team here even though the price is in the -165 range. The road team has not won any of the last five meetings. Home team got the win in 4 of the 5 and we like Chelsea again here at home. These two teams have been going opposite directions and we like the home team at a moderate price here. The home team likely to roll here again in this match-up and our computer math model shows strong odds of that for Sunday! Take Chelsea on Sunday morning.