Bad beats: Late blown leads in CFL, MLB top worst beats in sports betting from last week
A portion of NFL teams will have their rookies reporting to training camp starting this week, signaling the closeness to the return of American football. In the meantime, though, the Canadian Football League continues to capture the attention of not just football fans but bettors as well.
While baseball took a brief intermission for its All-Star festivities before restarting this weekend, the CFL had multiple thrilling finishes — including one blown double-digit lead with less than three minutes left in a game that could only make bettors groan.
It also wouldn’t be another edition of bad beats in sports without a baseball team blowing a lead after the seventh inning, as we’ve come to accept will happen at some point during the week.
Here are our worst betting beats of the week.
Entering their game against the Ottawa Redblacks on Saturday night, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers owned a 4-1 record, led by quarterback Zach Collaros, one of the most prolific passers in the CFL. The Blue Bombers were 9.5-point favorites entering the game, -490 on the money line at FanDuel, and were cruising against the 1-4 Redblacks through three quarters, leading 25-6 heading into the final frame.
The Redblacks added a field goal and still trailed by 16 with less than three minutes to go. On the Blue Bombers’ possession, they elected to throw the ball on second down, and a misfire from Collaros turned into a pick-six for the Redblacks, and a converted two-point conversion cut Winnipeg’s lead to 25-17.
After getting the ball back with about a minute left in regulation, Redblacks quarterback Dustin Crum led a methodical drive that ended with him scoring a scramble touchdown after escaping the pocket as time expired, then once again converted another two-point conversion, sending the game to overtime.
The Blue Bombers kicked a field goal on their opening possession, and the Redblacks answered, Crum scoring a walk-off rushing touchdown to give Ottawa an improbable win. As bad of a beat for the Grey Cup runner-up Blue Bombers as you can imagine.
The Calgary Stampeders narrowly missed a bad beat themselves after giving up a nearly impossible Hail Mary to the Saskatchewan Roughriders for a 69-yard touchdown, trailing 31-30 with 42 seconds left. The Stampeders prevailed on a 50-yard field goal as time expired, securing a 33-31 win as 1.5-point favorites entering the game.
After a José Abreu three-run home run in the top of the seventh inning during Saturday night’s game, the Astros, -160 on the money line against the Angels, led 9-3 and had. a 98.4% chance to win, according to ESPN’s probability model.
That lead was almost instantaneously gone after the bottom of the inning, with the Angels scoring six runs to tie it at 9 heading into the eighth inning. The Astros tacked on three runs over the next two innings, with a chance to close out the game heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, leading 12-9 with Ryan Pressly on the mound, trying to pick up his 22nd save of the season.
Unfortunately, the Astros squandered their lead against the Angels. The California squad got going, kick-started by a Shohei Ohtani home run, leading to Hunter Renfroe tying the game on an RBI single, sending the game to extras tied at 12. After Houston went scoreless at the top of the 10th, the Angels had runners on second and first bases with one out.
A routine groundout that could’ve turned into a double play ended in an error from Astros shortstop Grae Kissinger making an errant throw to first base, allowing the Angels to score the game-winning run and ending their six-game losing streak.
Entering the competition as the favorite to win the 2023 Home Run Derby last Monday night, two-time champion Pete Alonso didn’t come close to winning his first-round matchup against Julio Rodriguez after the Mariners slugger belted 41 homers.
However, Alonso’s over/under on total home runs hit in the first round was set at 21.5, and he was well on pace to hit the over with 19 homers with one minute left to add to his total. The Mets slugger only managed two more home runs in his final minute of swings, losing in the first round and causing bettors to miss out on the over on his home runs.
