Tuesday July 2 Best Sports Betting Picks For MLB & Las Vegas Aces vs. Indiana Fever Predictions | Deadspin.com

Plenty of black and gold is likely to appear in Las Vegas for the matchup between the Aces and Indiana Fever.

The late tip-off and national TV broadcast features Caitlin Clark’s Fever visiting Vegas and Clark’s former Iowa teammates, Kate Martin.

We’ll take a swing at an appealing matchup in the full MLB slate after a three-game short stack of limited options on Monday.

Indiana Fever at Las Vegas Aces, 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

One of the more forgettable games of Caitlin Clark’s career came in the first WNBA matchup with Las Vegas. She scored eight points with six turnovers, while WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson went for 29 and 15 in a 99-80 win at Mandalay Bay.

In the rematch, the Aces bring momentum with four consecutive wins. But they’ve covered the number only three times in the past 10 games, and the Fever has shown more fight.

Clark has 24 turnovers in the past four games. Giving the Aces extra possessions and Indiana empty offensive trips invites the 13.5-point spread.

While Clark seeks a bit of redemption in the scoring column and has been finding teammates with better consistency of late. She has also had at least three 3-pointers in three of the past four games.

Indiana has covered the spread six times in the past seven games with a straight-up 5-2 record. The losses were on the road—in Seattle, 89-77, and Chicago, 88-87.

Fever +13.5, Clark to make 3-plus 3s as two-leg parlay (+152, FanDuel)

Houston Astros at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 p.m. ET

Blue Jays ace Jose Berrios lost a 2-1 game at Houston in his second start of the season, part of a dominant May when he posted a 1.19 ERA with 25 strikeouts and five total earned runs. Times have changed in Toronto. Berrios (7-6) is being victimized by the longball with a ratio of flyballs to groundballs up to 108-74 in his last 10 starts, which include four games with multiple home runs allowed and at least one longball allowed in 11 of his previous 12 starts.

But Berrios is coming off his best outing in weeks. He had a season-high eight strikeouts against the Yankees, giving up two hits and two runs in seven innings—his longest outing since May 31—on June 27 to earn win No. 7.

The big sticks in the Astros’ lineup have historically struggled in this matchup. Yordan Alvarez has a .154 batting average (2 for 13) and Jose Altuve is 5-for-22 with one homer and a double. 

Alex Bregman has six hits in 23 career at-bats against Berrios. Four of them are extra-base hits, including two homers.

Injuries are part of the concern in backing the Blue Jays. First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (right hand) and infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa (left knee) were scratched before Monday’s matinee.

Houston took Monday’s game to win for the 10th time in 11 games and hands the ball to right-hander Spencer Arrighetti (4-6, 5.68 ERA), who delivered seven scoreless innings and struck out 10 in his last outing.

We’re leaning into a low-scoring game and backing Berrios, and the Jays getting 1.5 runs at home.

Blue Jays +1.5, Under 8.5 total runs -110 (+148, DraftKings)

Chicago White Sox at Cleveland Guardians, 6:40 p.m. ET

Losing three of four games to the Royals likely added some spice to the Guardians’ off day on Monday, but the AL Central leaders might be served the perfect tonic on Tuesday: the cellar-dwelling Chicago White Sox.

But it’s a meeting of starting pitchers with ERAs over 5.00 this season.

Cleveland (52-30) still leads the division by six games entering Tuesday night and gets a close-up with the White Sox, winners of a league-worst eight road games all season.

Now 30 games back of the Guardians, the White Sox run into 37-year-old righty Carlos Carrasco, who lost to Chicago (6-3, May 10) in his only start of at least seven innings in 2024. He’s 3-6 with a 5.27 ERA.

The Guardians have not seen Chris Flexen (2-7, 5.13 ERA) this season, and the 30-year-old has been hit hard on the road. He was chased in the fourth inning at Arizona in his previous road start, a 7-1 loss, and left after four innings at Yankee Stadium on May 19, yielding seven earned runs with two home runs and eight hits in that 7-2 loss.

Cleveland brings the offense—10th in home runs, 10th in slugging percentage—that the White Sox lack. Chicago is 29th in the league in hitting with a .220 average, but opportunities to put the ball in play are prevalent in a matchup that will very likely come down to bullpen pitching.

White Sox over 3.5 runs, game total over 9.5 runs (+135, FanDuel)