Bad beats: Late-inning baseball rally, missed free throws highlight a week of bad beats in sports

Late-inning rallies and blown leads have been the story of bad beats so far this summer in sports betting, but this past week brought forth some uncommon scenarios.

From the Phillies finding a way to score several runs while recording just one hit to a highly debated balk call in a monster matchup out west, baseball keeps finding ways to ensure that bettors aren’t counting their money before a bet cashes.

Here’s a look at a few bad beats from the previous week in sports.

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The New York Mets keep finding new ways to lose games, and their 7-6 loss to the Phillies added yet another gut-wrenching defeat to their disappointing showing against NL East foes this month.

Leading 6-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth, the Mets had a 97% chance of covering the spread, according to the Action Network model as a +165 underdog on the money line. They won the second game of the series and had a chance to close out the third.

Unfortunately for them, that didn’t happen. After the bases were loaded, an error from Mets third baseman Brett Baty allowed Bryce Harper to score, trimming the lead to 6-4.

Jeff Brigham walked Brandon Marsh in the next at-bat, making the score 6-5. Then after a Kody Clemens strikeout, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner were hit by pitches on back-to-back at-bats to bring in two more runs and give the Phillies the lead and the eventual win.

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In a marquee matchup Sunday between the second- and third-place teams in the WNBA’s Eastern Conference, the Washington Mystics-New York Liberty game on ABC lived up to its billing. After the Mystics, who entered the game as 7.5-point underdogs and +270 on the money line at FanDuel, jumped out to a 17-point lead, the Liberty crawled their way back, taking the lead midway through the fourth quarter.

Washington retook control, however, and was up by seven points with two minutes left in the game. The ESPN win probability model had the Mystics with a 92.9% chance to prevail at that point.

The Liberty cut the lead to two with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter, and the Mystics missed three of their four free throws to potentially close out the game. Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot capitalized, making a layup with two seconds left in regulation, sending the game to overtime tied at 78.

The extra quarter caused bettors to miss out on the under-161.5 point total at FanDuel, and the Liberty won, 89-88, after Breanna Stewart hit the go-ahead and-one bucket with 19 seconds left in the game.

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Heading into the seventh inning in Saturday night’s matchup in Los Angeles, the Houston Astros were in full control of the game against the Dodgers and had a 93% win probability at ESPN entering the inning. The Dodgers came into the game as favorites (-180) on the money line at FanDuel, with the run total of nine runs already surpassed.

The Astros’ lead quickly evaporated, as they gave up two runs in the bottom of the seventh, then two more in the eighth, forcing Houston to bring in a third pitcher, Ryne Stanek.

After striking out David Peralta, Stanek had a full count with two outs in the inning, with runners on second and third base, but was called for a balk by the umpire at home plate. It allowed another run to cross the plate in an 8-7 Dodgers win.

A bad break for bettors who backed the Astros, who also blew a late-inning lead on Sunday night but ended up winning the game in extra innings.