#Wild Cards

The first round of the Australian Open wraps up on Day 2. We get to see 32 women's matches across the grounds in Melbourne, in the more wide-open half of the draw. As always, we here at LWOT share our thoughts on all the matches with you. We split the day's matches between eight different articles. Our other articles feature Aryna Sabalenka vs…

The DraftKings Maryland promo code provides an ideal way to bet on the NFL Playoffs or any other upcoming action. Any Maryland resident who registers a sportsbook today can claim a batch of bonus bets for placing one wager. Maryland sign-ups who lock in any $5+ initial wager will immediately receive $200 worth of bonus bets with no restrictions.…

As times change, even a two-time Triple Crown-winning, Hall of Fame trainer has to adjust. In an era when horses are racing less and less, Bob Baffert looks like he is not only ahead of the curve, but he is leading the vanguard. This goes way beyond what he did with Justify in a gaudy, 112-day dash from apprenticeship to retirement. Very quietly,…

You can bet on 2023 NFL Wild Card weekend in Florida by signing up with some of the leading Florida sports betting sites featured below, which will then let you bet on the NFL Super Wild Card weekend fixtures and get a load of tasty free bets on the way too. NFL Wild Card weekend will have matches for Florida sports betting American football fans…

See below how to bet on 2023 NFL Wild Card weekend in California. You can sign-up with the top California sports betting sites listed on this page, which will let you to place bets on this weekend's NFL Super Wild Card weekend fixtures and get a mass of free bets in the process. This weekend's NFL Wild Card frenzy sees six matches for California…

It was a good start to the new season for this column last week with two winners from three suggested match bets, while the other one lost from a great position in-play. However, with a limited coupon to look at given the time difference with Australia, I'm frankly struggling to find a great deal of value in either Adelaide or Auckland, this week's…

The second edition of the ATP Adelaide International 2 will commence immediately after the conclusion of Adelaide 1, as the stars of the ATP Tour jump from one treadmill to the other before the first Grand Slam of the season. The tournament will run between January 9 - 14, 2023. Let us take an in-depth look at live streaming options, player lists,…

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WTA ASB Classic in Auckland has a spot in the opening week of the calendar. The WTA 250 event is the only top-tier tennis tournament played in New Zealand and will welcome some of the best players on the women's circuit. The tournament will kick off on January 2 as players look to finetune…

After an All-Star break festooned with nostalgia, home runs, and bullpen dominance, the MLB schedule restarts Thursday, with some 70 games remaining for each team. So before the second half begins, let's dive into the top 10 story lines to monitor between now and October-because there's a whole lot of baseball left, and just as much drama on the…

The perception that Corey Seager rediscovered his pre-surgery form last year isn't entirely accurate. He was actually better than he was before. Which makes sense. Seager was just entering his physical prime. When the two-time All-Star celebrates his next birthday later this month, he will turn 27. Mookie Betts may be the face of the Dodgers…

We are one game into the 2022 season, and while Opening Day certainly did not go the way we were all hoping here at OTM, it is still a very long year and one game does not a season make. You needn't look very far for an example of this being true, either, as the Red Sox started their 2021 campaign with three straight losses to the lowly Orioles. We…

The Philadelphia Phillies are set to play their 140th season in franchise history, and they've accomplished a lot in those first 139 years. They've called five ballparks home and won eleven division titles, seven pennants, and two World Series championships. Some of the greatest players in MLB history are enshrined in the Hall of Fame with a…

The Philadelphia Phillies might actually do it. They might finally end their playoff appearance drought, the longest in the National League. It's hard to believe that 2011 was over a decade ago and that the Phillies have struggled so much since then. But with the Golden Era way back in the rearview mirror, it's time to look forward. At the end of…

The Tampa Bay Rays enjoyed 21-6 month of August bringing them to 84-46. Their hot August was tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for tops in the majors, and their overall record puts them on par with the San Francisco Giants, also with a.636 winning percentage. With 132 games in the books, the Rays have a 6.0 game lead over the Houston Astros for…

For baseball fans, these two words are the sweetest ones of any year: Opening Day. Time will tell if it's any less sweet as baseball comes off its 99-day lockout and truncated spring training. Nevertheless, the 2022 regular season is upon us. Here's what you need to know as April 7 approaches: The local nine begin the season at home against the San…

Embrace the chaos of the 2022 MLB postseason. Enjoy the upsets, the unlikely heroes, and seeing 100-win teams going down in a October inferno. Your attitude on this topic probably depends on your personal rooting interests. So I wouldn't expect much cherish-the-postseason sentiment from fans of the Dodgers, Braves, Mets and Cardinals. Their teams…

On the morning of August 28, the Reds were 71-59 and in second place in the National League Central. They had the fourth-best record in the league and a 1.5-game lead over the Padres for the second wild card. They subsequently got run over by a 17-consecutive-win freight train coming out of St. Louis. But that glosses over the Reds' 12-20 record…

SUNRISE - The Florida Panthers are going to play their final home game of what has been an extremely successful season on Sunday night. The Panthers, as you all know by now, have already clinched the Atlantic Division title and first place in the Eastern Conference. Sunday, the Tampa Bay Lightning come to town. Last year, the Lightning ended its…

Dusty Baker finally got his long-awaited ring as the Houston Astros secured their second World Series title in six years, suffering just two postseason losses at the end of an outstanding regular season. Well done, Houston. Now, can you become the first back-to-back champion in more than two decades? An awful lot will change before Major League…

The MLB Playoffs start today and the latest Caesars promo code is raising the stakes for the Wild Card round with a $1250 bet you can get by clicking here. The Phillies are heading to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals. The winner moves ahead to the NLDS in Atlanta. New players who sign up with Caesars promo code VOICEFULL will activate the "Full…

Now that we have a good idea of the fields for next week's 38th Breeders' Cup "World Championships," let the serious handicapping begin. Maybe those cynical quotation marks should come off of "World Championships," especially since a record 58 internationals were among the 196 horses pre-entered into the 14 races that will be run next Friday at…

Have you ever watched a sporting event, listened to the commentators, and wondered how those involved in the game felt about certain issues being discussed on the telecast? Yeah, we have too. And since The Athletic has compiled a panel of eight experts - two active players, three scouts and three coaches - to help us break down this postseason, we…

In the ever-changing world of gambling odds, we have yet another regarding the next Chicago White Sox' manager. Bruce Bochy and Ozzie Guillen have owned the top spots until the most recent update. Bob Nightengale of USA Today previously mentioned that there are three favorites for the job: Bruce Bochy, Ron Washington, and Mike Schildt. It's always…

In recent years the Atlantic Division has been dominated by the same four teams: The Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers. It has been these four teams in the driver seat with the other four teams sitting in the back seat. Teams like Ottawa and Detroit come into this season trying to close the gap between…

After all the summer heat, the waiting, some previews, all the pre-season events, more waiting, the 2022-23 NHL season kicks off in earnest tonight with two prime time games. The Penguins will get going on Thursday, so while we endure even a little bit more waiting before the games start, let's knock out some season predictions. 1. Calgary Flames2.…

Playing nine innings while finding it fitting that baseball will miss Dennis Eckersley in retirement 1. Here's where I fall on The Xander Bogaerts Situation. I understand why it may not be wise to sign him to the contract his past production suggests he deserves. The Red Sox need to do it anyway. Caution about giving Bogaerts a deal well over nine…

The 2022-23 NHL season is less than a week away, which means it's time to release the standings projections! There are many different models and methods used across various sites and companies that project the total standings points for every team in the league. We've rounded up a handful of them here so we can see how everyone thinks this…

The MLB playoffs are finally here, and the best two teams in the regular season appear destined for rematch of the 2017 World Series. Can you imagine the storylines if the Fall Classic is between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros? At least that is how our panel of experts see it. To prepare you for October and November baseball, here's a…

The new-look MLB playoffs are here. Gone is the old single-game wild-card round between the 4-seed and 5-seed. Instead, this year, for the first time, MLB features four three-game wild-card series after expanding each playoff field to six teams and three wild cards. The top two seeds in each league receive a bye to the ALDS and NLDS,…

About The Show: A.J. Reilly: Playoff MLB is here. It starts tomorrow night with the wild card series. Remember, there are three wild card teams now this season. Two of them, the bottom two wild cards or the top two wild cards, will play each other. And the final wild card spot will travel to the third seed in the respective division. So let's look…

The Astana quarterfinal matches are loaded with top talent, including recent #1s Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev. Adrian Mannarino looks like an outlier in this group of eight, but he did just move past Carlos Alcaraz's victor in David Goffin. Almost anyone else winning the title would be unsurprising, but can Mannarino make an unlikely bid for…

The National League's fourth seed and highest-ranked wild card, the New York Mets, play host to the fifth-seeded San Diego Padres in one of Major League Baseball's four best-of-three wild-card series that begin Friday. The Mets are a large -194 favorites to advance, per the series price offered at FanDuel, with the Padres getting back odds…

The 12-team field is now set for the Major League Baseball playoffs, and it's time to examine odds to win the 2022 World Series, as well as the obstacles each team faces in its quest to win the title. The regular season is scheduled to conclude Wednesday followed by four best-of-three wild-card round series commencing Friday. As of midday Tuesday,…

This weekend's Mets vs. Braves series in Atlanta - pending the effects of Hurricane Ian - is without question the biggest regular-season series of the year. There is one game of separation between New York's 98-58 and Atlanta's 97-59 records. There are six games left. Three are head-to-head. It doesn't get much more important than this. A…

The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs are set to roll into the wild card of all wild cards - Talladega Superspeedway. Thirty-seven cars dot the entry list for Sunday's YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), serving as the middle race of the Round of 12. With no driver locked into the penultimate playoff round yet, the…

The latest issue of World Soccer is now available to buy online and in shops. With just one month to go until Qatar 2022 kicks off, and in the final issue before World Soccer's renowned World Cup special goes on sale, this edition presents us with the perfect opportunity to highlight the players to watch at what will be a groundbreaking…

NEW YORK - The Mets finally have a wee bit of breathing room in the NL East standings with the regular season less than two weeks from over. The Mets rolled to a 9-2 win in Oakland on Friday night to hike their lead to 2 ½ games over the second-place Braves, who were whipped 9-1 in Philadelphia. The Yankees had a good night, too, by beating the Red…

Good news for baseball fans: More teams are in the MLB playoffs now. This year because of a new MLB playoff format, 12 teams from each league have a shot to make it to the World Series, including six from each league - the three division winners, plus three Wild Card teams. During recent years, 10 teams had a shot, five from each league. In…

MILWAUKEE - With the MLB regular season down to 2 ½ weeks, we've got some good pennant races going on. The Mets are still just a game up the Braves in the NL East after both clubs won on Saturday and the Blue Jays are making a run at the AL East-leading Yankees, whose lead going into Sunday is 4 ½ games after being at 6 ½ heading into the…

Finishing last in the NHL in 2022-23 would guarantee the Blackhawks a top-three draft pick. Even if neither their 25.5% chance of winning the lottery for the first overall pick nor their 18.8% chance of gaining the second pick hit, they couldn't fall further than third. General manager Kyle Davidson likely won't outright declare that his goal for…

The Los Angeles Dodgers wrongly were told on Sunday that they'd clinched a playoff berth, then MLB informed them that their magic number still was one due to a potential three-way tie for a National League Wild Card. No biggie. All that did was force the Dodgers to wait a day to become the first club to clinch. They did it Monday night by shutting…

Dethroned last season, the Los Angeles Dodgers are closing in on a ninth NL West title in 10 seasons. They beat the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night to maintain their 19-game division lead on the second-place San Diego Padres and reduce their magic number to seven. Before wrapping that up, the Dodgers probably will become the first club to…

NEW YORK - The Tampa Bay Rays won again in Boston on Tuesday night to keep the pressure on the Yankees, who were rained out and lost a half game in the American League East standings. The Yankees' lead over Tampa Bay was 15 ½ games on July 8. It's now 4 1/2 games with four weeks to go and the teams meet up again three more times this weekend at…

Because "know thyself" is an important maxim in life, I have no trouble admitting that predictions are, um, not exactly my strong suit. So with this final monthly predictions piece of the season for September/early October, I have little choice but to change course and to follow the wisdom of the great 20th century philosopher George Costanza by…