Nippon Professional Baseball Odds, Picks & Best Bets for June 27

• The Chiba Lotte Marines continue to roll, winning their sixth straight game to move to 6-1
• Yokohama BayStars are the second-hottest team in Japan right now, winning five in a row to move to 5-2
• See the odds and best bets for all six NPB games on Saturday, June 27th

Nearing the end of the first full week in Nippon Professional Baseball, patterns are starting to emerge. Can anyone stop the Chiba Marines (6-1) or the Yokohama BayStars (5-2)? Will the Hanshin Tigers or Orix Buffaloes (both 1-6) ever find their way out of the basement? Can former Seattle Mariners outfielder Stefan Romero hit .400 for the season?

Okay, no one is actually talking about Romero, a career .195 hitter across three MLB seasons, actually maintaining his insane .478 average for the entire 120-game regular season, but it’s still a nice early-season storyline.

Tomorrow, Romero’s Rakuten Golden Eagles host the Nippon-Ham Fighters as heavy -185 favorites. Here are all the betting lines for Saturday’s NPB games.

NPB Odds: June 27th

Odds as of June 26

Power to the Peoples

If there is one game among Saturday’s slate that is significantly set up in one team’s favor it has to be the Yokohama BayStars-Hanshin Tigers clash.

Not only are the Tigers running into one of the hottest teams in NPB, winners of five straight, but they are doing so on the heels of Friday’s 6-0 waxing in the first game of the series between the two teams.

The pitching matchup doesn’t exactly favor the visitors, either. Yokohama is sending former Cleveland Indians prospect Michael Peoples to the mound. Against Hiroshima in his Japan league debut, the right-hander gave up one earned run in six innings of work, striking out seven.

https://twitter.com/Unflinching22/status/1274347880464220160?s=20

Hanshin will counter with left-hander Yuta Iwasada, an NPB veteran with six seasons under his belt. The 28-year-old has a career 26-39 record, and has only twice posted a season ERA under 4.00. A standout 2016 campaign (10-9, 2.90 ERA) is largely responsible for his career 3.75 ERA.

Pick: BayStars (-200); Hanshin +1.5 (-140)

If at First You Don’t Succeed…

After four straight defeats, the Orix Buffaloes must be sick of the sight of the Chiba Lotte Marines. However, it’s not like the Marines have been blowing the Buffaloes off the field. Indeed, if it wasn’t for an eighth-inning implosion by reliever Tomoyuki Kaida on Friday, where the left-hander was torched for four hits and four earned runs, Orix might well have come out on top in the 6-5 decision.

In the process, they wasted a good offensive outing by former Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones, who connected on his second home run of the season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3boukGPcRtw&feature=youtu.be

In the first four games of the six-games series, only Thursday’s 5-0 Marines win has been a blowout. The rest have comprised two one-run games and the other was a 6-4 Chiba win. So Orix has very much been in three of the four games so far.

The Buffaloes respond on Saturday by handing the ball to third-year left-hander Daiki Tajima. The 23-year-old has a career 9-7 record and a 3.72 ERA, and performed well in his only appearance so far this season, going five innings and giving up three hits and one earned run in last Saturday’s 2-1 extra-innings loss to Tohoku.

Daiki Tajima's first win of his career. #npbeng pic.twitter.com/EcqEAieFlE

— パ・リーグ.com / パーソル パ・リーグTV【公式】 (@PacificleagueTV) March 31, 2018

Chiba is going with Atsuki Taneichi, a young right-hander who has an 8-6 career NPB record with a 3.86 ERA.

If Orix can give Tajima the kind of run support it has put up in three of the four games so far, the Buffaloes have a real shot at ending Chiba’s six-game win streak.

Pick: Buffaloes (+135); Over 7.5 (-105)