KBO Betting Picks for Friday, April 23

We had a high-scoring night in the KBO on Thursday, with three teams cracking double digits and four scoring at least eight runs. The Wiz, Bears, and Landers were the teams that put at least 10 runs on the board last night. On Friday, we’ll get a new batch of series as the league heads into the weekend.

MyBookie has fresh KBO odds posted ahead of Friday’s action. Let’s pick some winners.

LG Twins vs Hanwha Eagles

The Twins fell 3-2 against Kia in 10 innings on Thursday, and tonight they’ll hit the road to face the Hanwha Eagles in Daejeon. The Eagles lost 8-3 to Kiwoom last night, but they did take two of the three games against the Heroes in the middle of the week.

The Twins are -158 road favorites in Friday’s series opener in a game featuring an over/under of just 7.5 runs. That’s the lowest total on the slate.

The total is low here because we’ve got a matchup between a couple of former major league starting pitchers. Lefty Andrew Suarez, formerly of the San Francisco Giants, will get the ball for the Twins. Ryan Carpenter, who spent time in the majors with the Detroit Tigers, will start for Hanwha.

Carpenter, a 30-year-old lefty has started three games for the Eagles in his first year in the KBO. Carpenter is 1-0 to this point with a tidy 1.65 ERA, and he hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any outing. The fact that he’s faced a couple of the league’s best offenses in the Dinos and Bears likely bodes well for Carpenter’s success moving forward, and he has impressively racked up 20 strikeouts across 16.1 innings thus far.

Suarez is also in his first year in the league. The 28-year-old lefty is 2-1 to this point with a 1.59 ERA. His worst outing was his last one against Doosan in which he yielded three runs on five hits, but he didn’t allow a single tally in either of his first two starts against KT and SSG.

Suarez was the slightly better pitcher than Carpenter in the big leagues, but we can safely expect both of them to be quality starters against lesser competition in South Korea. The juice (-133) actually favors the over here given the low total, but I’m inclined to go in the opposite direction. If both starters live up to billing, we’ll have a pitcher’s duel on our hands here. Bet the under on 7.5 runs.

Lotte Giants vs KT Wiz

The Wiz did a number on Drew Rucinski and the NC Dinos last night. KT put eight runs on the board against Rucinski, which is no easy task considering the right-hander has consistently been one of the KBO’s best pitchers. Odrisamer Despaigne baffled the Dinos’ offense on the other side to help KT move to 9-7 on the young season.

The Wiz will be at home on Friday against Lotte, who were crushed 13-1 last night by Doosan. The Giants are tied with Hanwha for the second-worst record in the KBO at 7-9 in the season’s early stages. Only Kiwoom (6-11) is off to a worse start.

The Giants are -174 favorites in Friday’s series opener in a game with a high 10.5-run total. Lotte will have Enderson Franco on the mound, while KT will start Jung-hyun Lee. Franco is a righty that served briefly in the majors with the San Francisco Giants, and he’s 0-1 with a 6.94 ERA through his first three KBO starts.

Franco has conceded nine earned runs (13 total) in 11.2 innings of work through three games against NC, Kiwoom, and Samsung to this point. He actually pitched fairly well in his first two games, but his ERA was inflated after being slapped around for eight runs on six hits in just 0.2 innings of action last time out against the Lions.

Lee is a 23-year-old rookie that has pitched nine times already this season, though just two of his appearances have been starts. The righty has a 9.75 ERA after having allowed runs in five of those nine appearances. Lee hasn’t pitched more than three innings in any game to this point, but he was handed the losses in each of his two starts.

You can blame Franco’s bloated ERA on one bad start. This looks like a bullpen game for the Wiz, and I like Franco’s chances of bouncing back tonight after his rough outing against Samsung. Back the Giants to get back into the win column at -174.

NC Dinos vs Doosan Bears

The Dinos were on the wrong end of that aforementioned 11-5 scoreline against the Wiz last night, while the Bears beat up on the Giants with a 13-1 triumph of their own. Doosan scored all those runs without a single homer as they smacked 18 hits against Dan Straily and the heavily-favored Giants.

This should be a fun series, as it’s a rematch of last year’s Korean Series. The Dinos won the series 4-2 to claim their first-ever KBO championship. This game is basically a toss-up. You can get NC at -119 on the moneyline to win this one on the road, while Doosan is listed at -114 at home. Won-joon Choi will start for the Bears, while Myung-gi Song goes for NC.

Choi has been one of the Bears’ most consistent pitchers over the past few years, but he has done a lot of work out of the bullpen. He has a total of 85 appearances in the league, though just 24 of those games are starts. He’s started all three of his appearances this season, though, and he comes into tonight at 1-0 with a tiny 1.76 ERA. Choi has allowed exactly one earned run in each of those three outings.

Song, 20, has a similar track record. 16 of his 41 KBO games have been out of the bullpen in his career, but he has made three starts to begin 2021. The right-hander is 2-0 with a 3.29 ERA so far this season after solid showings against the Eagles, Tigers, and Giants.

We have to solid young starter on the mound, but these are also two of the league’s most potent offenses. Between Jose Fernandez, Eui-ji Yang, Sung-bum Na, and Aaron Altherr, there is no shortage of offensive star power here. Neither starter has a long track record of proven success in the KBO, so this looks like a decent spot to bet the over on the 8.5-run total.

SSG Landers vs Kiwoom Heroes

SSG was another team that had a big offensive night on Thursday when they trounced the Samsung Lions, 11-6. The Landers will hit the road on Friday to begin a weekend series with a Kiwoom Heroes team that has gotten off to a dreadful start. The Heroes dropped two of three during the week to a Hanwha team that was the worst in the KBO by a sizable margin in 2020.

SSG opens the series as a -123 road favorite with Jong-hun Park toeing the rubber. The Heroes will have Woo-jin An on the mound.

Park has been a regular in the SSG rotation dating back to 2015. Over the course of his career, the righty is 63-60 with a 4.59 ERA. He went 13-11 across 29 games last year with a 4.81 ERA, and so far this season he has pitched quite well. Park has a 1.42 ERA through three games against Hanwha, LG, and Kia. Based on his track record, though, we can expect him to come crashing down to earth at some point. This guy has been about as average as it gets, though his numbers have admittedly improved over the past couple of years.

An, a 21-year-old lefty, is back in the rotation after making 42 appearances out of the bullpen a season ago. An is 0-1 with a 5.25 ERA so far this season, but he’s another guy whose ERA has been hampered by one dreadful start. He was touched up for five runs on eight hits in his second outing of the year against Lotte. In his other two starts combined, An has allowed just two earned runs on seven total hits in eight innings.

The Heroes’ offense has been awful to begin the year, but this isn’t a bad time to buy-low. They’re returning home after a midweek series on the road, and they’re facing an SSG starter that has been pretty average over the years. Kiwoom at -111 on the moneyline is a solid value tonight.

Samsung Lions vs Kia Tigers

Samsung was smoked 11-6 last night by SSG Landers, while the Kia Tigers outlasted the LG Twins 3-2 in extra innings. The Lions are off to a 9-8 start to the season, while the Tigers are sitting at 8-8.

Kia is a heavy -163 moneyline favorite at home over Samsung in Friday’s weekend series opener. Former Oakland A’s right-hander Daniel Mengden will make the start for the Tigers, while Jung-hyun Baek goes for Samsung.

Mengden is off to an 0-1 start in his first season in the KBO. The mustachioed right-hander has a 4.86 ERA to this point, with his lone loss of the year coming to the reigning champion NC Dinos. Mengden pitched well last time out, allowing just a couple of runs on six hits with six strikeouts against SSG. He was never a big strikeout pitcher in the majors, and that lack of strikeout ability seems to have transferred to the KBO. He has 15 Ks in 16.2 innings thus far.

Baek, 33, has pitched since 2007 with the Lions. The left-hander has a 4.87 career ERA, but he is off to a nice start in 2021. He’s 2-1 with a 2.40 ERA through three games against Doosan, KT, and Lotte.

I like Kia in this one. Baek is a hittable lefty, and the Tigers should be able to pick up where they left off in last night’s big victory. Bet on the Tigers at baseball betting sites to keep up their winning ways on Friday.