KBO Betting Predictions for Tuesday, April 13

The first week of the 2021 KBO season has brought a few surprises. The LG Twins are off to a solid 5-2 start, which is an impressive showing for a team that finished in fourth place a season ago. The reigning champion NC Dinos are tied for second with the Doosan Bears and SSG Landers at 4-3 apiece, while the KT Wiz are bringing up the rear at just 2-5.

The league will be back in action with five games on Tuesday and baseball betting sites are starting to release the odds on the upcoming games. Let’s take a quick dive into all five and try to pick some winners, shall we?

Hanwha Eagles vs Samsung Lions

The Hanwha Eagles brought up the rear a season ago after finishing just 46-95-3, while the Lions weren’t much better at 64-75-5. Hanwha was one of two teams in the league to finish with at least 90 losses, but the Eagles are off to a more respectable 3-4 start so far in 2021. The Eagles impressively took two of three from Doosan over the weekend after dropping two of three against SSG Landers in the first series of the campaign.

Park Ju-hong will toe the rubber for the Eagles on Tuesday, while Won Tae-in takes the mound for Samsung. This will be Park’s first start of the year after pitching two innings in relief last week. Last year, he finished with a bloated 8.39 ERA across 11 appearances, including five starts as a rookie.

Won allowed just a run on seven hits in five innings of work in his 2021 debut against Doosan last week. The right-hander has a career 4.80 ERA at this level, but he has an awful lot more experience than Park on the other side of this matchup. Hanwha is likely to be among the worst teams in the KBO once again this season, so backing Won and the Lions looks like the way to go in this game.

Samsung should cruise in this one, so take the Lions to cover the runline (-1.5) at the +140 odds.

KT Wiz vs Doosan Bears

The Wiz, who have the worst record in the league at 2-5, will take on one of this year’s title favorites in the Doosan Bears on Tuesday. KT comes into this game riding a four-game losing streak after getting swept over the weekend by Samsung. The Bears are 4-3 after losing two of three to the lowly Eagles, but they did win one of those games by a margin of 18-1.

Ko Young-pyo is slated to take the mound for KT in this one, while Ariel Miranda gets the ball for Doosan. Ko has a career ERA of 5.20 in the KBO, but this will be his first season since 2018 after serving in the military. Ko does have decent strikeout stuff, but the Bears’ lineup features one of the game’s premier bats in former Angel Jose Fernandez.

Miranda spent time in the majors with the Seattle Mariners before joining the Bears prior to this season. The lefty impressively struck out five in five scoreless innings in his debut last week against Samsung. While Ko may not be  as bad a pitcher as his career ERA may lead you to believe, Miranda figures to be one of the premier starters in the KBO this season.

This one looks like a serious mismatch on paper. Bet the Bears to pick up the W. Doosan is a fine moneyline value at -170.

LG Twins vs Kiwoom Heroes

The LG Twins are the first team in the KBO to reach five wins on the year, and they’ll face the Kiwoom Heroes on Tuesday. LG swept the SSG Landers in all three games of their weekend series by a combined score of 14-8. The Heroes, who are off to a 4-4 start, did manage to take two of their three games over the weekend against the Lotte Giants.

Im Chan-kyu gets the ball for LG in this one, and he’ll be opposed by right-hander Josh Smith. Smith was touched up for five runs on six hits in just three innings of work in his 2021 debut by Kia last week. The Heroes were dealt a major blow this offseason when star shortstop Ha-Seong Kim signed with the Padres, while ace Jake Brigham left.  Smith didn’t have a ton of success at the major league level, and his first KBO start was hardly impressive.

Im has a career 4.89 ERA at the KBO level, and he has spent the entirety of his career with the Twins. This will be the season debut for the right-hander. While he is one of the weaker starters in the LG rotation, this is still one of the most talented teams in the entire league. Roberto Ramos is arguably the league’s most potent power bat, while Hyun-Soo Kim gives the lineup another decorated lefty bat.

LG is gonna do a lot of winning this season, and I like their chances of doing damage against a middling right-hander in Josh Smith. Take the Twins in this one, and I like the runline value at +115 here.

Lotte Giants vs Kia Tigers

Lotte got off to a ragged start a season ago before finishing near .500 at 71-72-1. The Giants are off to a middling start once again at 3-4 so far this season after dropping two of three games over the weekend against Kiwoom. The Kia Tigers come into this one at 3-4 after being swept over the weekend by the NC Dinos.

Park Se-woong gets the ball for Lotte, while Lee Min-woo goes for Kia. Park has pitched to a 5.18 career ERA in the KBO, and he gave up four runs on seven hits, including a pair of homers, against the Dinos last time out. The Dinos are the best team in the league, though, so there’s no real shame in that.

Lee has really struggled over the years, as evidenced by his 6.18 KBO ERA. He did look good in his season debut in a relief outing against the Heroes over the weekend, but he only threw 46 pitches across 2.1 scoreless innings.

We have two mediocre pitchers taking the mound in a game featuring a pair of mid-table teams. Park is the slightly better of the two pitchers, as it’s shaping up to be something of a bullpen game for the Tigers. Side with the Giants in this game at -150 on the moneyline.

NC Dinos vs SSG Landers

The reigning champion NC Dinos will be in action Tuesday against SSG Landers, the team formerly known as SK Wyverns. This looks like a serious mismatch. The Dinos finished 83-55-6 last year, while SSG Landesr went just 51-92-1.

The Dinos haven’t gotten off to an amazing start at 4-3, but they did get back on track with a three-game sweep of the Tigers over the weekend. Between Sung-Bum Na, Euiji Yang, and Aaron Altherr, this is clearly the best lineup in the KBO. NC was the best team in the league last year from start to finish, and there is no real reason to expect anything different with most of the roster having remained intact.

Kang Dong-Yeon will climb the mound for NC, while Wilmer Font gets the nod for SSG Landers. Font pitched in the majors with the Rangers and Dodgers before signing in the KBO this offseason. Font allowed four runs on four hits in two innings last week in a rough start against the Eagles, and he’s in an even less favorable spot tonight against the stacked Dinos.

Former MLB All-Star Shin-Soo Choo has signed with the Landers ahead of this season, but I don’t think Choo’s presence alone will be enough to help the team in this one. Wagering against the Dinos likely won’t be a profitable KBO betting endeavor very often in 2021, so back NC today.