Editor's note: only the marquee game carries a betting line here, and it comes from a real sportsbook page. The rest of the slate is listed without picks until our picks model ships. Full schedule and live scores at watch.uristocrat.com.
Thursday is a rare day where the late window is the whole point. The two best records in baseball share a field in Los Angeles at 10:10 p.m. ET, and before that Netflix takes over a cornfield in Iowa. Add three WNBA games with playoff seeding on the line and the second week of NFL preseason, and there is no dead hour after dinner.
Marquee: Milwaukee Brewers at Los Angeles Dodgers, best record vs. best record (10:10 p.m. ET, SportsNet LA)
Milwaukee is 74-47. Los Angeles is 73-48. That is first and second in all of baseball, and it is the second time these two have met this season after the Dodgers took two of three in late May. Roki Sasaki gets the ball for Los Angeles, and he has quietly been the version the Dodgers paid for: five earned runs over his last four starts, 26 strikeouts against seven walks in 24 innings, including six innings of two-run ball against Arizona on Saturday. Milwaukee counters with Shane Drohan, 6-4 with a 3.87 ERA. The Brewers have gotten here without a rotation anyone fears, which is the whole story of their season and the thing that gets tested in a three-game set at Dodger Stadium.
Vegas line: Dodgers -149, Brewers +123, run line LAD -1.5, total 8.5 (DraftKings via ESPN; full board at ESPN MLB odds).
Also today
- Philadelphia Phillies vs. Minnesota Twins at Field of Dreams (7:30 p.m. ET, Netflix). Baseball's best staged event returns, this time as a Netflix property. Philadelphia is 64-58 and still chasing in the NL East, Minnesota is 60-62 and playing out a season that never got going. The standings are not the reason to watch this one.
- Chicago Cubs at Washington Nationals (4:05 p.m. ET, Marquee). The Cubs are 71-50, the third-best record in baseball, and they get a Nationals team 12 games under. Chicago has spent the summer proving the start was not a fluke, and days like this are where that gets confirmed or does not.
- Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays (3:07 p.m. ET, NESN). Boston is 64-56 and firmly in the wild card race. Toronto at 59-63 is the team that has to decide what it is. Division games in August are worth double in the standings math even though they only count once.
- Los Angeles Sparks at New York Liberty (8 p.m. ET, Prime Video). The Liberty are 20-14 and jockeying for a top seed. The Sparks at 12-20 are on the outside looking in. Barclays in August with the playoffs three weeks out is a real atmosphere.
- Washington Mystics at Las Vegas Aces (10 p.m. ET, Prime Video). Las Vegas is 23-11 and holds the best record in the league. Washington at 19-13 has been the surprise of the season. This is the late WNBA game worth staying up for if the baseball goes sideways.
- Atlanta Dream at Connecticut Sun (7 p.m. ET, Peachtree TV). Atlanta is 20-12 and needs every win to hold position. Connecticut is 8-23 and playing for next year.
- Green Bay Packers at Pittsburgh Steelers (7 p.m. ET, NFL Network). Preseason, so expect a quarter of anyone you have heard of. Six other exhibitions fill the night, including Arizona at Las Vegas on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET.
The thread today is that August is when the season stops being theoretical. Milwaukee and Los Angeles are playing for the top seed in the National League, the Cubs are trying to stay in that conversation, and the Aces and Liberty are already positioning for a WNBA bracket that starts in a few weeks. Netflix gets the cornfield. Everyone else gets the standings.
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