This is a 10* on LAD -1.5

After being swept down in San Diego, the Dodgers look to regroup this weekend. It’ll be the Cubs paying them a visit and this is a revenge series for the home team who got swept at Wrigley Field early in May. We look for this series to go a whole lot differently. Or at least today’s game where Walker Buehler will pitch for Los Angeles. Buehler has a 10-4 team start record this year, but has not dropped a decision. His record is 7-0 and he’s coming off a performance where he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and had a season-high 11 strikeouts. He’s 3-0 his past three starts with an ERA of 0.89 and a WHIP of 0.74. When the no-hitter was finally broken up by Arizona last Saturday, Buehler had not allowed any runs in his previous 20 innings of work. The Cubs have lost six of nine and before winning 7-1 against Cleveland Tuesday, they had not topped three runs in any of those contests. They really struggle at the plate on the road (.218 average) and we don’t see Davies helping out too much as he has a 1.77 WHIP in seven road starts. The Dodgers are 4-1 this year following three straight losses. Since the money line is pretty high, you’ll want to play the run line here as we think the home team wins this one pretty easily. Play on LA DODGERS -1.5

This is an 8* on MINNESOTA

It says a lot that Minnesota would be favored like this. The Twins have drastically underachieved in 2021 as they are 31-42 and in last place in the Central. But coming into the season, it was projected that they’d be battling with the White Sox for division supremacy, They did win the division each of the last two years. So looking at this line, it seems as if the oddsmakers still believe a turnaround is possible. We agree. Cleveland, who is 10 games up on the Twins right now, has seen its starting rotation decimated by injuries. That’s why you have Jean Carlos Mejia starting tonight’s game. Making four starts so far, Mejia has been bad. He gave up six runs to Pittsburgh in a game where there was no DH. He has an 11.17 ERA the last three starts. Minnesota had shown signs of turning things around recently as they’d won five in a row before losing 10-7 to the Reds on Tuesday. They’ve scored seven runs in four of their last six games. So it should be a solid night at the plate vs. Mejia. One spot where the Twins always seem to do well is when Jose Berrios is pitching. They’ve won his last seven starts. Berrios looks to extend that win streak here against a team he’s pitched pretty well against in the past. The Indians are 0-6 the L6 meetings in Minnesota. Play on MINNESOTA

AAA

This is a 10* on OVER

Those pesky Habs won’t go away and are now just a win away from the Stanley Cup Finals. They came in as massive underdogs in this semifinal series with Vegas, who tied for the most points in the league during the regular season (and had the best goal differential). The series started with Vegas easily taking Game 1 and most figured Montreal’s magical run was done for. Not so fast. They’ve won three of the last four games. What continues to impress us is not just the fact the Canadiens have won 10 of their last 12 games, but they’ve never trailed in 9 of those 10 wins. Now we also had Vegas as our Game of the Year in Game 4, which they won. They are not going quietly into the night. While no game in this series has had more than five goals scored, we are going to predict this one will. Six of the Golden Knights top seven goal scorers have failed to put the puck in the net (even one time) in this series. This was the third highest scoring team in the league in the regular season. Each team has had a game where they scored four times. So both are capable of big offensive nights. Montreal’s penalty killing, which is 28 for its last 28, is due to give one up. Note four of the five games in the series have seen EXACTLY five goals scored. We just need one more to get over the hump here and we’ll take our chances. Play on OVER

AAA

This is a 10* on the CLIPPERS

Both Games 1 and 2 were tightly contested and the Suns are up 2-0 heading back to LA. We are also 2-0 in the series. Phoenix was the play for Game 1 and they covered the spread thanks to a pair of late Devin Booker free throws. We took the Clippers in Game 2 and that probably should have been an outright win, but we’ll take the cover. The finish to Game 2 was wild with the Clippers allowing a game-winning alley-oop in the final second. For the third straight series, they are down 0-2. In the first round, they won Game 3 in Dallas 118-108. In the second round, they won Game 3 at home, 132-106 over Utah. Going back to Game 7 of the first round, they’ve won four straight at home - all by double digits. The season is basically on the line tonight. Chris Paul may be back for the Suns, which is why the line has shifted towards the Suns after initially flipping to the Clippers -1. But Paul will have rust to shake off and bettors are overreacting to the news. Reggie Jackson has stepped up for the Clippers with Kawhi Leonard out as he’s averaging 23 points over the last four games. To us, this is a very obvious bounce back situation as the Clippers probably should have won Game 2. The Clippers are 6-2 ATS when trailing in the series during these playoffs. Phoenix is 1-9 ATS its last 10 visits to the Staples Center to face the Clippers. Play on LA CLIPPERS

AAA