Lefty Urias gets the start for the Dodgers today. The left-hander was solid down the stretch for L.A. and has carried that over to the postseason. Urias threw eight innings in the playoffs and allowed just one unearned run on four hits while striking out 11.

Braves right-hander Wright didn’t have a good regular season, pitching to a 5.21 ERA and a 1.55 WHIP, but he was brilliant in his postseason debut. Wright shut out the Marlins over six innings on just three hits while striking out seven in the divisional round.

Don’t write off the Dodgers just yet. Los Angeles showed a lot of fight in Game 2. They seemed to come to life late in the last game. Don't forget, they were the best team in the regular season by far, leading the MLB in wins (43) and run differential (+136). Now they hand the ball to a hot lefty in Urias, while the Braves counter with Wright, who, outside of a very good start here or there, has not performed great this season. The Dodgers will pose a much bigger challenge for Wright.

Urias was 5-0 with a 2.86 ERA & Wright 3-4 with a 4.50 ERA. A weird stat I found while handicapping is the fact that Urias was 5-0 in night games and Wright went 0-4 in night games this year. So, let's call this game a twi-nighter. The Dodgers will carry the momentum they built at the end of Game 2 into this one and ride it to a big win. It's gona take a lefty to get the Dodgers right. Take them by a couple of runs.
TAKE: LA DODGERS - 1.5 RUNS - 110

The Dodgers have been rolling and my earlier fear of postseason collapse has not materialized. So will I get caught up in the switcheroo tonight. Hope not, Kershaw has been dominant against the Padres with a career mark of 21-7 with 277 striketouts. That's an average of almost 10 strikeouts a game and obviously he didn't go the distance in all of those games or maybe none of those games. I'm certainly not going to buck that trend. TAKE: LA DODGERS - 1.5 RUNS

What's killing the Heat is the fact that the Lakers have turned 25 offensive rebounds into 37 second-chance points during the first two games of the series. That alone is way too much to overcome. The Heat just couldn't get a stop defensively or get a rebound and a lot of that had to do with Bam Adebayo being out. I think the Heat gets Bam Adebayo back for this game. But I doubt starting guard Goran Dragic can come back from that fasciatis tear. I personally had the same and couldn't even walk. Even with a cortisone shot he will be ineffective. Miami outscored Los Angeles by 17 points in the eight minutes that the trio of Jimmy Butler, Adebayo and Dragic played together in Game 1 of the Finals before Adebayo and Dragic went down with injuries during that contest and missed Game 2.

Even without Adebayo and Dragic, the Heat turned in its most efficient offensive performance of the playoffs in Friday’s Game 2 loss. Miami scored 114 points on an efficient 50.7 percent shooting from the field and 11-of-27 (40.7 percent) shooting on threes, and also finished 31 of 34 (91.2 percent) from the foul line.

The Miami Heat had their chances to win game two. If Bam plays, that's a major boost to this Heat lineup at both ends of the court. The Heat are 0-2 and this game is a must win to get back in the series. Miami will put forth their best effort, especially on defense and the boards. The Heat are very hungry and will attack the Lakers like a junkyard dog on a XMAS ham. I'll take the 10 points with the Heat here, assuming Bam is in the lineup.

Sixto Sanchez vs. Yu Darvish: Interestingly, the superior pitching matchup might come in Game 2 when these two talented hurlers go at it.
Darvish, of course, crafted a sensational 2020, even being one of the frontrunners for this year’s NL Cy Young Award. He led the league in wins with eight and finished in the top five in ERA (2.01) and WHIP (0.96). His usual excellent strikeout rate (11.0 K/9) wasn’t too shabby, either.
Miami will likely counter with their young starter in Sanchez. The 22-year-old rookie can actually match Darvish’s heat, firing up an eye-opening average fastball velocity of 99 mph. Although he struggled a bit after his outstanding first five starts in the big leagues, Sanchez looks like he can handle this Cubs lineup. TAKE: UNDER TOTAL RUNS as soon as line is posted.

This is an intriguing matchup in Arlington Texas, of two young starters that have both shown flashes of greatness. Jose Urquidy has not allowed more than 2 earned runs in any of his four starts this year and most likely will be called upon to pitch in the postseason. Kyle Cody has made seven appearances for the Rangers, with the last four as a starter slowly going deeper into games. These two faced off on 9/15, with Urquidy getting the 4-1 victory when he allowed 1 run on 3 hits while striking out 7. Line at this time is Houston -177, a bit steep, therefore my recommendation is to
Take: Houston - 1.5 runs at -105.

Cincinnati is a solid football team and the Bearcats have been solid defensively. Cincinnati bullied little Austin Peay, but Army’s suffocated their opponents, allowing just 7 points in two games (including a Louisiana-Monroe team can sure score points in bunches. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw another tight game. The line opened at 11 and jumped up 14 as of this writing. After all, I'm an Army vet and my high school had the same knickname LOL. Cadets infantry kills clock and keeps this one under the generous number. Note that the underdog is 4-0 ATS last four meetings. I’ll take the points and the Black Knights in this one.

The Royals had won six in a row until losing to the Tigers on Tuesday. The price certainly is reasonable to back the Royals in a pitching matchup of Brady Singer versus Tarik Skubal. Royals Brady Singer is coming off his best outing wen he shut out the Indians on one hit in eight innings with eight strikeouts last Thursday. Singer is fresh after five restful dayss. The Tigers main threat, injured second baseman Jonathan Schoop, who was leading the team in homers is out. Furthermore, their starter Skubal has been throwing up gopher balls this season with a 7.27 ERA. TAKE: KANSAS CITY - 125

The starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates has been terrible in five starts this season, Joe Musgrove lost four of those starts.The Reds is not even close to intimidating. but the Pirates are even worse. Pirates just simply find it very hard to score on anyone.

Mike Lorenzen who has been primarily used as a reliver this season gets the start tonight. Lorenzen is a good enough pitcher to beat the Bucs. Take the Reds on the moneyline - 130.

The Titans are 7-1 ATS in their last eight Monday games and 5-1 ATS in their last six road games. Tennessee is 7-2-1 ATS in their last 10 versus the AFC and 5-2 ATS in their last seven games in September.

Meanwhile, the Broncos are 6-2 ATS in their last eight games as a favorite and 2-8-1 ATS in their last 11 games as a home favorite. Denver is 1-6-1 ATS in their last eight games in September and 0-4-1 ATS in their last five Monday games.

I like a side in this game and also in the Giants Steelers game. First game of the season and the Titans will be sucking wind in Denver. Don't get fooled by this game, buy my guaranteed pick now. Both are guaranteed and ready at www.gridirongold.com/nfl-football-picks.com I am also giving my over under picks for both games included free with your purchase. Giddy up games starting soon.

The FALCONS are the play as slight home dogs in the season opener. Both teams made several key changes on the defensive side of the ball to improve on last year’s poorly-ranked units.
The Seahawks are still led by the strong quartet of QB Russell Wilson, RB Chris Carson, and WRs Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf, but look for Atlanta’s improved defensive line to make life more difficult for Wilson than it was in this matchup last year. We're going to back