Wise n' Shine: MLB picks, NFL odds and college football predictions for Friday, September 23

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Phil Agius

NFL

Show Bio

I've been writing about the NFL and a host of other sports for the UK's top daily betting paper the Racing Post for more than 20 years. An incurable Browns fan (1-31 survivor), I also specialise in all kinds of motorsport betting including F1, MotoGP, IndyCar and NASCAR. For Phil Agius media enquiries, please email contact@pickswise.com.
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Good morning, Pickswise Nation. NFL Week 3 is underway and we have another action-packed Friday of sports ahead with a big baseball slate and college football games. Let’s get straight to making your next bet better!

About Last Night

Browns bounce back to beat Steelers
The Browns suffered a crazy loss to the Jets on Sunday, but were able to bounce back to win their AFC North showdown with the Steelers 29-17 last night on Thursday Night Football, covering as 4.5-point favorites. Our props expert Bobby “Prop Holliday” Stanley went 2-1 with his prop picks, and Ricky Dimon cashed both of his anytime TD scorer picks with Nick Chubb and Najee Harris both scoring. FanDuel Sportsbook has the 2-1 Browns at +310 odds to win the AFC North, behind the Ravens (+100) and Bengals (+290), with the 1-2 Steelers out to +1000.

3-0 start to CFB Week 4
Our Thursday NCAAF picks went 3-0 on spreads and 2-1 on totals as West Virginia, Coastal Carolina and Illinois all won and comfortably covered. That meant we also cashed our Thursday CFB parlay on those 3 teams at +580 odds in a great start to the college football week!

YRFI/NRFI picks on an 8-2 run
Our MLB YRFI/NRFI plays went 2-0 on Thursday for the 4th time in the last 5 days, putting us on an 8-2 run. The Yankees clinched a playoff berth with their 5-4 win over the Red Sox in 10 innings, and the Cardinals beat the Padres 5-4 with a grand slam from rookie Brendan Donovan. The Orioles shut out the Astros in a 2-0 win and the Phillies beat the Braves 1-0.

Today’s Slate

Busy night of baseball
We have a full 15-game MLB slate today, with Braves vs Phillies on ESPN+ at 7:05 pm ET, while Apple TV+ has Red Sox vs Yankees at 7:05 pm ET and Cardinals vs Dodgers at 10:10 pm ET. Read today’s MLB predictions.

Friday night lights are on
There are 3 college football Week 4 games tonight with Virginia vs Syracuse on ESPN at 7:00 pm ET, Nevada vs Air Force on FS1 at 8:00 pm ET and Boise State vs UTEP on CBSSN at 9:00 pm ET. Read today’s NCAAF predictions.

Best Bet of the Day

MLB: Cleveland Guardians ML over Texas Rangers
8:05 pm ET

The Rangers have struggled lately to the tune of 14 losses in their last 21 games and 8 in their last 12 at home. In the teams’ only head-to-head series this season, the Guardians took 2 out of 3, outscoring Texas 13-9. Cleveland has ridden a great last month of play to a 7-game lead in the AL Central. The Guardians have been playing playoff-style baseball all month and are firing on all cylinders. If a team is going to take a division, they have to get the job done against bad opponents. That is exactly what the Guardians have done. Unfortunately for the Rangers, at 20 games under .500, they qualify as a bad team. Read our full Guardians vs Rangers predictions.

Must-watch

Don’t forget to check out our daily show Let’s Bet It on our YouTube channel atyoutube.com/c/Pickswise at 10:00 am ET.

Mark Zinno and Jared Smith are your hosts today, and they will be joined by Howard Bender (@rotobuzzguy), NY Post writer and head of content at Fantasy Alarm, to react to last night’s NFL game and look ahead to the rest of the Week 3 slate. The team will also look at today’s MLB and college football games before revealing their Plays of the Day.

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

The Week 3 edition of Pickwise Playbook, our weekly NFL preview show, is also available, featuring former NFL star Tank Williams, so be sure to check that out too!

Must-read

Get up to speed with today’s baseball by reading our YRFI/NRFI best bets and Same Game Parlays for Red Sox vs Yankees and Cardinals vs Dodgers.

As for college football, you can check out our CFB Week 4 Best Bets as our expert bids to go 3-0 for the third straight week, plus our Friday NCAAF mega parlay and our college football underdog picks.

Our NFL Week 3 coverage includes Jared Smith’s NFL Week 3 picks and our Sunday 1pm NFL prop bets from Bobby “Prop Holliday” Stanley, plus our Sunday millionaire maker parlay!

Read all of our great sports analysis as it arrives throughout the day on the Analysis tab.

Stat of the Day

The Nevada Wolfpack have covered the spread in 6 of their last 7 true road games.

Quote of the Day

“I am sorry for putting the team in this difficult situation, and I accept the team’s decision.”

Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka has been suspended by the team for the whole 2022-23 season.

Pickswise is the home of free sports picks, news and best bets. Check out our expert NFL Picks, NBA Picks, MLB Picks and NHL Picks pages for our latest game picks.

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