Odds and Bets: New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx in Playoff Hunt

New York Liberty vs Minnesota Lynx

On Friday night the New York Liberty (20-6) will continue the fight to secure at least the second seed in the WNBA playoffs, if not necessarily the first – no one thinks the Las Vegas Aces can be caught. They visit Minnesota to play the Lynx (13-14). In a testament to how imbalanced the 2023 campaign has been, the hosts are the middle of the table yet sit one game under .500. A team three spots above them, the Connecticut Sun, is a whopping 12 games over .500 (19-7).

New York got to play the L.A. Sparks twice in a row, taking the set with relative ease. Minnesota couldn’t complete the road hat trick of beating New York and Connecticut twice, but at least took two of three. The Lynx will be without Napheesa Collier (ankle), a big loss. As for New York, there’s always optimism with Breanna Stewart leading the charge. As long as the Liberty don’t take their opponents lightly, they should win.

Best Bet: New York Liberty with the -11.0 spread

Houston Astros vs New York Yankees

One shouldn’t outright dismiss this series just because the New York Yankees (57-52) are struggling this season and the Houston Astros (62-48) are slowly beginning to look like their old selves again. Looking at the American League Wild Card standings, the Yankees are two and a half games out of a place, the Astros are one of the club’s that New York is chasing, and the latter just handed Tampa Bay a loss before taking the first game of this four-tilt weekend set.

Should Houston be favoured in this series? For sure. Is it in the bag? Absolutely not. The Texas-based outfit sends Hunter Brown (7-7, 4.12 ERA) to the mound on Friday. He’ll be pitching against Luis Severino (2-5, 7.49 ERA). Severino has been rocked thrice in his last six starts, but two of those were against the Orioles. Justin Verlander is scheduled to make his new Astros debut on Saturday, so the Yankees know they’ll need to head into that match with at least two wins under their belt.

Best Bet: Yankees on the moneyline

Montreal Alouettes vs Hamilton Tiger-Cats

The battle for second place in the CFL’s East Division is shaping up like last year’s. It looks as though it will involve teams that aren’t bad but aren’t especially good either, with Toronto simply waiting to see who will head to BMO field in November for the East Final. The next chapter in this race is set for Saturday in Hamilton when the Tiger-Cats (3-4) host the Montreal Alouettes (3-3).

Montreal has benefited from a lot of home games so far, playing four of six at Percival Molson Stadium, so it will be interesting to see how they fare on their travels. Cody Fajardo, despite not tossing many TDs, is third in the CFL in passing yards (1,559). WR Austin Mack missed some practice this week but is still available. Hamilton heads into battle with Taylor Powell under centre, which doesn’t bode well. Only top QBs have burned the Als defence so far this year.

Best Bet: Montreal Alouettes with the -3.0 spread