ASA – American Sports Analysts Handicapper

#960 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* New York Yankees -1.5 on Run Line over Kansas City Royals, Tuesday at 7:05 PM ET - After a big win at Minnesota way back on May 1st, the Royals sat at 16-9 on the season. Kansas City has since gone 16-29 in 45 games! The Yankees are a huge money line home favorite here as a result of that plus having Gerrit Cole on the mound but we can get some strong line value here by laying the 1.5 runs on the run line with New York. Cole is 8-3 with a 2.31 ERA this season. Amazingly, Cole has piled up 117 strikeouts in his first 14 starts this season! He will dominate here as the Royals have averaged only 2.5 runs last 12 losses. A loss is likely here as Brady Singer gets the start for Kansas City and will be no match for Cole. Singer went 2-4 with a 4.32 ERA in night starts last season and is 1-2 with a 5.20 ERA and .292 BAA in evening outings this season. Kansas City is 1-5 in Singer's road starts this season and he has a 5.60 ERA in those outings. Singer is dealing with shoulder tightness and may not work deep here and the Royals bullpen has a 4.84 ERA last 30 days to rank among the worst in the majors. New York's bullpen has a 3.06 ERA to rank among the best in the majors. Both the Yankees and Royals were off yesterday and New York enters this game having won 5 of last 6 games and 11 of 17 wins since mid-May were by at least 2 runs. Also, the Royals are off a rare win as KC had lost 12 of 14 before tasting victory on Sunday. 7 of Kansas City’s last 10 losses have come by at least 2 runs and considering the big starting pitching edge and bullpen edge as well, we’ll back the New York Yankees on the run line Tuesday evening.

ASA top play on 10* UNDER 224 LA Clippers @ Phoenix Suns, Game 2 Tuesday 9 PM ET - Game 1 finished with 234 total points which has forced the oddsmakers to adjust this number up from the 220 it was in the opener. That added value has us on the Under here. In Game 1 these two teams combined for just 177 field goal attempts which is right around league average, so the pace of play was not the driving force for the higher score. Exceptional shooting impacted this outcome and forced the game Over the Total. The Suns hit 55% of their field goal attempts and made 13 of 32 3-pointers or 41%. Phoenix shot 49% on the season and 37.8% from beyond the arc, both lower than what they shot in Game 1. The hype of this game will wear off and expect the young Suns to return to normal here. The Suns weren’t the only team shooting well in G1 as the Clippers made 45% of their FGA’s and hit 20 of 47 3’s or 43%. The Clippers attempted 47 3-pointers which is 12 more than they averaged during the regular season. The three regular season meetings between these two teams finished with 210, 216 and 219 Total points and this game is going to stay right around that average or 215 total points.