Handicapper Art Aronson of AAA Sports Plays Free Picks & Best Bets

This is a 10* on OVER

With only a couple days left in the regular season, perhaps the biggest remaining storyline is who will get the 8-seed in the Western Conference. Memphis currently has the spot as they occupied it coming into the bubble. But things have not gone well here in Orlando where the Grizzlies record is just 1-5. A loss to Toronto on Sunday kept them from clinching a spot in the now guaranteed play-in series, which is set to begin Saturday. Memphis didn’t shoot the ball well against Toronto. The bench outscored the starters in the 1st half, the team was just 30% overall from the field in the 3rd quarter and finished the game at 33% (14-42) from three-point range. Off an OT win against the Magic, Boston is locked in as the 3-seed in the East. So they probably won’t have the same motivation as Memphis here. But with the Celtics having gone Over in five of their six games, what we can expect is a high-scoring game Tuesday. The Celtics have given up more than 115 points/game in the bubble and struggle to defend the interior. The Over is 18-3 the Grizzlies’ L21 games vs. teams with a winning record. Play on OVER

AAA

This is an 8* on WASHINGTON

Washington jumped all over the hapless Mets on Monday and never looked back, eventually winning by a score of 16-4. After taking that kind of beating, it’s tough to like the Mets chances tonight as they have to face Max Scherzer. Though a sore hamstring caused him to exit his last start after just one inning, Scherzer looked really good in the start before that one. He threw 7 ⅓ scoreless innings against Toronto on 7/29. He had 21 strikeouts in his first two starts. The Mets are a disaster. Their bullpen is in shambles and you shouldn’t trust today’s starter Rick Porcello, who allowed 13 runs his first two starts. Now Porcello did bounce back with a strong effort against Scherzer and the Nationals last week. But we’ll go with the revenge angle and the better team Tuesday. Again, Scherzer lasted just one inning in that first go-around and it’s not because he was ineffective. The Mets have a bottom five run differential in all of baseball. Play on WASHINGTON

AAA

This is an 8* on TORONTO

For the first time in 135 years, the city of Buffalo will host a regular season Major League Baseball game. COVID-19 means the Blue Jays can’t play in Toronto so they chose (were forced to?) their Triple-A affiliate’s stadium to be the new home. The Jays are 5-8 coming into this “home opener” and will no doubt be happy to be here, even if it isn’t “really” home. They’ll host a team that’s had to endure its own coronavirus-related drama, Miami, who has managed to start 7-3. But the Marlins have lost two in a row as reality seems to be setting in for a team that wasn’t expected to be very competitive in 2020. Remember that four of the Marlins wins were against a terrible Baltimore team and that was after a long, quarantine-induced layoff. Their record is phony and the roster is thin. Elieser Hernandez didn’t allow a run when he faced Baltimore last week, but also only went 4 1/3 innings. We like what we saw out of Hyun-Jin Ryu in his last start for Toronto as he tossed five shutout innings of one-hit ball with eight strikeouts. Play on TORONTO

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