Good morning, Pickswise Nation! NFL Week 9 starts tonight and we have a huge Game 5 in the World Series after the Astros’ win tied it up at 2-2 last night. Fans from Houston and Philadelphia are going to have to multitask as the Eagles play the Texans at the same time as the Phillies take on the Astros! There is also NBA, NHL, college football and soccer on the schedule today, so let’s get straight to making your next bet better.

About Last Night

Great night for the Astros… and Pickswise!
The Astros got the road win they needed in Philadelphia last night, pitching a team no-hitter to win 5-0 over the Phillies with all the scoring coming in the 5th inning. With the series score at 2-2, a 3-game mini-series starts at Citizens Bank Park tonight, and FanDuel Sportsbook now has the Astros as -180 odds favorites to win the World Series, with the Phillies out to +155. Pickswise went 2-0 with our Astros ML and under 7.5 picks, while our YRFI/NRFI best bet of no first-inning run cashed, along with our Game 4 Same Game Parlay at +364 odds!

Dominant day on the ice
There were only 2 Wednesday games in the NHL, but they couldn’t have gone any better for our cappers, as we went 2-0 on ML and PL picks, cashed the over in both games as the Maple Leafs beat the Flyers 5-2 and the Sabres overcame the Penguins 6-3. We hit our standard NHL parlay at +341 odds and also cashed our NHL mega parlay at +752 odds!

NBA mega parlay cashes too!
On a great all-round night for Pickswise across all sports, our NBA team went 7-4 on sides and 7-4 on totals and also cashed our NBA Wednesday mega parlay at +1111 odds, with the Lakers bringing it home as they beat the Pelicans 120-117 in overtime. An earlier OT finish saw the Cavaliers move to 6-1 with a 114-113 win over the Celtics, while the Bucks are 7-0 after a 116-91 win over the Pistons.

Today’s Slate

NFL Week 9 is here
The unbeaten Philadelphia Eagles get NFL Week 9 started on Thursday Night Football at 8:15 pm ET on Amazon Prime as they visit the Houston Texans.

Crucial Game 5 in Philly
The Phillies have only one home game left in the World Series, with Game 6 and a potential Game 7 set for Houston, and it’s tonight at 8:03 pm ET on FOX, with Justin Verlander and Noah Syndergaard projected to start.

Nuggets vs Thunder on NBA TV
There are just 2 NBA games today, with Warriors vs Magic at 7:00 pm ET and Nuggets vs Thunder on NBA TV at 8:00 pm ET. 13-game NHL slate
We have a huge NHL slate today, with 13 games including Bruins vs Rangers at 7:30pm ET and Panthers vs Sharks at 10:30 pm ET on ESPN+ Hockey Night.

There’s college football and soccer too
7-1 Coastal Carolina takes on 5-3 Appalachian State in today’s top NCAAF game at 7:30 pm ET on ESPN. Best Bet of the Day

NFL: Philadelphia Eagles -13.5 over Houston Texans (-115)
8:15 pm ET, Amazon Prime

This is a horrible matchup for the Texans, who cannot stop the run. The Eagles are great at running the football (2nd best in the NFL in EPA per rush), but this Texans run defense ranks 28th in EPA, 32nd in explosive runs allowed and 31st in yards before contact per rush allowed. That yards before contact allowed is significant because they have not played a difficult schedule of opposing run offenses. Texans QB Davis Mills is functional against some of the mediocre to bad defenses that he faces but against top-level defenses, the Houston offense has been atrocious

Must-watch

Enhance your betting knowledge by watching our daily show Let’s Bet It!, available at 10:00 am ET on our YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/c/Pickswise.

Lauren Jbara, Jared Smith and Mark Zinno are your hosts today and they will be joined by Pickwise NFL props expert Bobby “Prop Holliday” Stanley to looking at the best bets for Thursday Night Football. They’ll also be finding the best bets for today’s MLB and NBA games, looking at the college football playoff rankings and revealing their Plays of the Day.

You can also access LBI shows at any time through Spotify and Apple Podcasts (search for Let’s Bet It Presented By Pickswise).

Also, don’t miss the Week 9 episode of Pickswise Playbook, as Lauren, Jared and ex-NFL star Tank Williams react to what we saw in Week 8 and dive into the key matchups for this week. You can watch the full show on our YouTube channel or watch the section on Thursday Night Football below:

Stat of the Day

The Eagles have covered the spread in 5 of their last 6 games as favorites.

Quote of the Day

“Let’s try to stay positive. God willing, you’ll throw a no-hitter.”

The encouragement from Cristian Javier’s parents proved to be just the inspiration he needed to star for the Astros last night.