Saturday was a really, really really fun day as I spent it mostly out of the Tuley’s Takes home office (no chores or errands except for taking the trash and recycling cans to the curb before leaving the house).
After being up late to post yesterday’s column, I was up at 5:30 a.m. PT to do a radio show in Kenosha, Wisconsin That was fun, and after a short nap, I was up again to work on my Team Tuley’s Thoroughbred Takes column with my horse racing friends.
I spent most of the day at Circa and Westgate signing up proxy clients in the big football handicapping contests for this NFL season. I also saw tons of co-workers like our VSiN COO Bill Adee, Matt Youmans, Mitch Moss, James Salinas, Brady Kannon and Mike Palm, plus his boss Derek Stevens and Jeffery Benson and plenty of other Circa staffers. I also spent time with friends like Roger from San Francisco and Tony “Durbify” Gordon (who I proxied for last season when he won Circa Sports Million), also from Cali in addition to my proxy clients.
I ended the night with a great 24-ounce bone-in ribeye from Barry’s Downtime Prime. Well, actually I ended the night by going back to the Circa sports book to Tweet out my betting results from the day and write this column before the VSiN newsletters comes out around 6 a.m. ET/3 a.m. PT.
As for my betting action on the day, my horse racing picks didn’t fare so well as I went 0-3 with my longshot plays on the ponies, and then I also lost my Best Bet of the day in sports with Wyoming + 14 at Illinois as the Cowboys from Laramie only scored 6 points and were routed 38-6.
However, I did cash my No. 2 college football bet on Vanderbilt-Hawaii Over 53.5 as the Commodores routed the Rainbow Warriors 63-10. I pushed my lone MLB 1st 5 bet on the Angels 1st 5 + 135 at the Blue Jays with Shohei Ohtani doing his job with 5 shutout innings (actually 7 shutout innings overall), but the Angels’ offense failed to give him a single run of support in the first 5 innings as it was tied 0-0. But at least we cashed on the Angels + 145 as they went on to win 2-0 for a slightly winning day all things considered (moreso if you’re not a horse player!).
Let’s recap the rest of Saturday’s (full-game) betting results and then look for more 1st 5 plays on Sunday.
Saturday’s recaps
CFB: Faves went 6-1 SU and 5-2 ATS on the main betting board in the so-called Week 0 as most teams start their seasons next weekend. The lone outright upset on the main betting board was by Northwestern (+ 12.5 in 31-28 win vs. Nebraska in Ireland). UConn (+ 24) covered in 31-20 loss at Utah State. Unders went 4-3 on the main board.
NFL: Ravens (-6.5) beat Commanders 17-15 for preseason record 23rd straight win, but did NOT cover. Faves went 7-1 SU Saturday and 5-2-1 ATS with the push in the Titans' 26-23 win vs. Cardinals as 3-point home faves. The only upset was by the Bears (+ 3 at Browns). Home teams also went 7-1 SU and 5-2-1 ATS. Over/Unders split 4-4.
More NFL: Faves took 10-4 SU and 8-5-1 ATS leads in Preseason Week 3. Home teams now lead 13-1 SU and 11-2-1 ATS. Unders lead 8-5-1. Overall, faves improved to 28-17 SU with 2 pick-’ems and took lead at 22-20-3 ATS. Home teams lead 28-18 SU and 26-17-3 ATS (60.5 percent). Overs lead 27-19-1 (58.7 percent).
MLB: Underdogs went 8-6 Saturday with Braves-Cardinals closing pick-em. The biggest upsets were by the A's (+ 203 in 3-2 win vs. Yankees), Marlins (+ 180 in 2-1 win vs. Dodgers), Orioles (+ 160 in 3-1 win at Astros) and Guardians (+ 160 in 4-3 win at Mariners). Home teams went 8-7. Unders 11-3-1 with push in Guardians-Mariners game with betting total of 7 runs.
More MLB: Faves lead 1,124-735 SU (60.1 percent) on the season with 28 pick-'ems (faves usually win around 59 percent; still ahead of pace; gap had been narrowing but now well over 60 percent). Home teams lead 1,002-893 (52.9 percent, usually closer to 54 percent but on the rise). Unders lead 931-863-100 (51.9 percent).
Sunday’s Takes
Giants 1st 5 + 100 at Twins: San Fran starter Jakob Junis is 4-3 on the season with a 3.58 ERA and 1.10 WHIP, all better than his counterpart Aaron Sanchez. In addition, even though Junis doesn’t have a decision in his last 3 starts, the Giants are 2-1 so he’s keeping them competitive in those games. I feel like I missed out on some opportunities with dogs winning 8 games outright on Saturday, but the only other dog I like Sunday is the Guardians 1st 5 + 115 at the Mariners. Similar to Junis above, Cleveland starter Aaron Civale doesn’t have a decision in his last 3 starts, but he has a lower 2.45 ERA and 0.89 WHIP in those starts and the Guardians are 3-0 in those games with the full-game money line, so I’ll take them around + 135 for the game as well.
Good luck today (and every day!).