NPB Odds, Picks & Best Bets for July 21: Marines Take Aim at Lions

• Things can’t get much worse for Orix Buffaloes, who enter six-games series with Tohoku
• Chiba Marines are right in the mix in Pacific League and have favorable pitching matchup Tuesday
• Odds and best bets below for all six Nippon Professional Baseball games on Tuesday, July 21

The standings are still fairly tightly bunched in Nippon Professional Baseball with more than a fifth of the pandemic-shortened 120-game season already in the books.

The Yomiuri Giants and Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles lead their leagues with 16 wins apiece, while the Orix Buffaloes remain the bottom team in all of Japanese baseball with nine wins to their credit.

Orix is in tough to improve its record this week, going up against the Pacific League-leading Golden Eagles. Before we take a look at their chances, here are all of Tuesday’s games and odds.

NPB Odds: July 21st

Odds as of July 20th.

Marines Have Sights Set on Top Two

The Chiba Marines have neatly alternated wins and losses for the last 10 days, but that .500 clip has kept them humming along nicely in third in the Pacific League.

NPB standings through Jul 19 https://t.co/tnaDrNMR6P #npb pic.twitter.com/LzwVlMVkpN

— NPB on reddit (@NPB_Reddit) July 19, 2020

Beginning a six-game series at the fourth-placed Seibu Lions, Chiba can cut into the marginal leads that both first-place Tohoku and second-placed Fukuoka currently hold.

The presence of Manabu Mima on the mound Tuesday would suggest they can do exactly that. In his first season with Chiba, the right-hander is 2-1 in four starts, with a 3.65 earned-run average across 24.2 innings.

Everyone likes a good pitcher/hitter battle, right? Here's Manabu Mima vs Fumihito Haraguchi going 10 pitches with the game on the line pic.twitter.com/bcDiwZeUKH

— Daniel Brim (@DanielBrim) June 17, 2017

That ERA is marginally better than his career average; in 10 seasons, he has a 3.82 mark.

The Lions counter with Tatsuya Imai, who is having something of a disastrous 2020 campaign. The 22-year-old right-hander is 1-3 in four starts, has a 6.14 ERA, and a WHIP of almost 2.00, having given up 22 hits and 19 walks in 22 innings pitched. In 42 NPB games, Imai is 13-17 with a 4.65 ERA.

Pick: Marines (+110); U 9.5 (-135)

Buffaloes Down But Not Out

With an NPB-low .365 winning percentage, a Pacific League-low 92 runs scored, and coming off three consecutive defeats, things aren’t exactly looking rosy for the Orix Buffaloes.

Things don’t get any easier this week as Orix begins a six-game set at Tohoku against the league-leading Golden Eagles, owners of the most potent offense in NPB with 155 runs scored.

GRAND SLAM EAGLES! Yasuhito Uchida drives one over the fence and the Eagles have now scored 6 runs this inning and now lead 9-5! #RakutenEagles #内田 pic.twitter.com/gZCh98xv66

— Tom Mussa (@tom_mussa) July 19, 2020

But there are seeds of hope to be found in Tuesday’s pitching matchup. Orix will be sending left-hander Andrew Albers to the mound, and while he is still some way off his 2018 debut numbers (9-2 record and a 3.08 ERA), his 1-2 mark in four starts doesn’t really do justice to his performance. He has posted a 3.48 ERA across 20.2 innings isn’t bad and has been the victim of minimal run support.

.@Andrew_W_Albers got 3rd win at Japan. #npbeng #AndrewAlbers pic.twitter.com/zLdlulZnM2

— パ・リーグ.com / パーソル パ・リーグTV公式 (@PacificleagueTV) May 1, 2018

Albers’ numbers positively sparkle in comparison with Tohoku’s starter, Ryota Ishibashi, who owns a 7.20 ERA in 20 innings to go along with a 1-3 record in four starts. Ishibashi posted a 3.82 ERA in 127.1 innings last year.

Pick: Buffaloes (+150); O 8.5 (-105)