KBO Picks & Odds (July 18): Chang Mo Koo Seeks Revenge vs KT Wiz

• Chang Mo Koo allowed a season-high four earned runs in his only start vs KT Wiz this year
• Lotte’s Se Woong Park has a 7.66 ERA and 1.87 WHIP in five road starts in 2020
• Find odds and best bets for the KBO’s five-game slate on July 18th in the article below

If you believe oddsmakers, Saturday in the KBO is shaping up to be a very high scoring slate. All but one of the five games has a total of 10.5 or above, including the feature matchup between KT Wiz and NC, which gets underway at 5:00 am EST.

Dinos’ ace Chang Mo Koo will face the Suwon for the second time this season, and will be looking to avenge his worst outing of 2020.

 KBO Odds: Saturday, July 18th

Odds as of July 17th.

Can Koo Quiet KT Wiz?

Back on June 25th, Koo lasted a season-low four innings, and surrendered a season-high four earned runs to KT Wiz. The Suwon went on to win that game 19-6, but Koo didn’t factor in to the decision. As such, his perfect record (8-0) is still in tact, and that outing appears to be just a blip on the radar.

Koo Chang-mo, Pitching with Koo Chang-e-mo-tion. 🔥

[Sorry.] pic.twitter.com/wqXhNYfy0d

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 1, 2020

In his two starts since that outing, he’s allowed just three earned runs and has fanned 17. He’s lasted at least seven innings in both, and lowered his league-leading WHIP down to 0.81 in the process. KT Wiz is known for being tough on southpaws, but Koo has been very good against left-handed bats this season, holding them to a very low ISO rate.

The First place Dinos are certainly capable of hanging a double-digit total on the Suwon by themselves, but I bet they don’t produce that much offense on Saturday and Koo gets his revenge against KT Wiz.

Pick: Under 10.5 (-120) 

Expect a Lotte of Runs

For the second time in as many days on Friday, the Lotte Giants played in a game that finished with a total of 25. This time they were on the losing end of a 15-10 affair, but we should expect another high scoring game Saturday versus Samsung.

https://youtu.be/54WDtqQA9w8

That’s because the Giants will send Se Woong Park to the hill against the Lions, and the right-hander has struggled badly on the road this season. He’s allowed 18 runs in his last four starts away from home, and earlier this season he was chased after just four innings versus this same Samsung team.

The Lions meanwhile, will give the ball to Ben Lively, who hasn’t pitched since May 22nd due to injury. He’ll likely be on a pitch count which will put more pressure on Samsung’s tired bullpen. Lions relievers allowed five runs on Friday, and have pitched a total of 10 innings in Samsung’s last two games.

Pick: Over 10.5 (-110)

SK Plus the Runs

SK hasn’t won back-to-back games since June 25th and 26th, but we don’t need them to win on Saturday, we just need to them to cover the 1.5-run spread. The Wyverns’ offense has a tasty matchup versus Kiwoom’s Hyun Hee Han, who’s allowed 17 runs in his last three innings pitched (no that is not a typo).

Han Hyun-hee picked up right where he left off his previous start before the injury time off. Which is not good. 6ER in 2IP. Sigh…it’s been a 180 turn for the rotation, who crushed the month of June. 6-1 Tigers in the 3rd.

— Kiwoom Heroes International (@kwheroesfan) July 13, 2020

SK will counter with Jong Hong Park, who’s allowed just two runs in each of his past three starts, and has recorded 18 strikeouts over that stretch.

Pick: SK Wyverns +1.5 (-120)