Tuesday Best Bet Results
Tuesday was a milestone day in Las Vegas history as the Golden Knights clinched the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship at home at T-Mobile Arena in front of 19,000 spectators and thousands more outside the stadium.
What a lot of non-Las Vegans don’t realize is that the Golden Knights’ six-year run to the title started in the week after the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting less than a mile away on the Strip (still the worst in U.S. history with 58 lost and more than 800 injured by a lone gunman from his hotel room at Mandalay Bay). I fortunately wasn’t there, but it still hit close to home as I had spent the day – my first NFL Sunday as a VSiN employee – at the Downtown Events Center in an eerily similar venue. The Golden Knights’ inaugural “Vegas Strong” season was a big part of this city’s recovery and their games were, for many of us, the first large public gatherings that we attended in the wake of Oct. 1. So, it was with a lot of civic pride that we cheered home the Golden Knights from home as they lifted the Cup and celebrated their championship on the Strip even though we did lose our only bet on the game on the Panthers. We still try to bet with our head instead of our heart and believed Florida was the right side (though we did admit in yesterday’s column that it was a bit of an emotional hedge as we were pulling for VGK to win the title). It was a small price to pay for a championship and I’m happy for those who bet the Golden Knights (and I know many who easily covered on the -1.5 puck line). As for my other bets on the day, we received a refund on our Tigers First 5 Inning +230 wager vs. the Braves as their game was postponed. It looked like we were going to push our 2nd MLB play as the Nationals First 5 +200 was tied 0-0 heading to the bottom of the 5th but the Astros scored 2 runs to give us another loss. Let’s look for plays on Wednesday as the NBA and NHL playoffs are now behind us, plus I still have one early USFL play for the weekend.MLB Wednesday Best Bets
Phillies First 5 Innings +105 at Diamondbacks: This is an “anti-swagger” play against the Diamondbacks, who had their 6-game winning streak snapped by the Phillies on Tuesday night. It’s tough to fade Arizona’s Merrill Kelly (8-3, 2.92 ERA), but we’re comfortable counting on Ranger Suarez (1-2, 4.70 ERA) to keep this close.
Tigers First 5 Innings +150 vs. Braves: As stated above, we have +230 yesterday, but with the postponement and refund, we get a pitching change for the Tigers in Game 1 of the doubleheader with Michael Lorezen (2-3, 3.75 ERA). We still like this as an “anti-swagger” play against the Braves after their 7-game winning streak was snapped on Monday, though we’re less enthusiastic with it as the Braves have had an extra day off. So, that’s another reason we’re not listing it as our top play like we had it yesterday.