Editor's note: only the marquee game carries a Vegas line right now. The rest of the slate is here to tell you what is worth your evening, not what to bet. Full slate and live tiles at watch.uristocrat.com.
Friday is a full baseball night with a rivalry on top. Boston lands in the Bronx for four games with both teams stacked into the same wild card knot, the Brewers keep running away with the best record in the sport, and the WNBA playoff seeding fight gets two games at 7:30. The NFL closes out preseason, which means most of what you watch will be rookies playing for a roster spot.
Marquee: Red Sox at Yankees, first of four in the Bronx (7:15 pm ET, Apple TV)
These two have not seen each other since Boston swept four at Fenway in late June, and the standings have barely separated them since. New York sits 75-58, Boston 73-60, both chasing Tampa Bay at 79-54 in the AL East and both very much alive in the wild card race. The pitching matchup is the reason to tune in early: Cam Schlittler has been the Yankees' best starter this year at 11-6 with a 2.16 ERA and 193 strikeouts, and Boston counters with Patrick Sandoval, who has given up two earned runs or fewer in six of his eight starts back from injury and owns a 3.70 ERA in four career-season appearances against New York. The Yankees are doing this without Aaron Judge and Max Fried, both on the injured list, which is a large part of why the number is not bigger. Line via ESPN, sourced from DraftKings.
Vegas line: Yankees -1.5 run line, Yankees -147 moneyline, Red Sox +137, total 7 (over -117 / under -103).
Also tonight
- Rangers at Brewers (7:40 pm ET). Milwaukee is 83-51, the best record in baseball, and has spent the whole summer proving it is not a fluke. Texas at 66-68 is the team that has to win these to stay in the conversation. If you want to see what a first-place team looks like in late August, this is the game.
- Dodgers at Tigers (6:40 pm ET). The earliest start worth your time. Los Angeles at 80-54 is a genuine contender walking into Comerica against a Detroit team at 62-71 that has faded badly since the break. Good matchup for a first look at how the Dodgers handle a road park they rarely see.
- Padres at Rays (7:10 pm ET). Tampa Bay leads the AL East at 79-54 and San Diego sits 72-62 in the NL playoff picture. Two teams that build rosters the same way, cheap and weird and effective, and both of them need this one.
- Sun at Fever (7:30 pm ET, ION). Indiana is 25-14 and fighting for a top seed. Connecticut is 10-28 and playing out the string. The interesting part is not the result, it is whether the Fever look sharp heading into the postseason.
- Fire at Dream (7:30 pm ET, ION). Atlanta at 25-13 is right in the mix at the top. Portland's expansion season at 15-23 has been better than most first years, and this is a decent read on where the Dream stand against a team playing loose.
- Commanders at Ravens (6:00 pm ET, NFL Network). Preseason finale in Baltimore. Starters will be on the sideline in street clothes by the second series. Watch it for the back half of the roster, because cuts come next week and these are the reps that decide them.
The thread tonight is separation. Milwaukee, Tampa Bay, and Los Angeles are trying to lock things down. New York and Boston are trying to figure out which of them is actually the better team, and they have four games starting tonight to sort it out.
Comments