The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) weekend series’ roll on and American televised game will feature the Doosan Bears (9-6) traveling to Daegu to take on the Samsung Lions (5-11). This game will take place on Saturday May 23, 2020 and will air live on ESPN at 4:00 a.m. EST. Game one of this series was one of the more exciting games on the Friday schedule.
This series got underway Friday in an exciting game that saw the Doosan Bears come away with a 12-7 win. The Lions got out a 2-0 lead after two innings, but eight runs in the 3-5 innings saw the Bears take an 8-4 lead into the sixth inning. There were a combined seven runs scored in the final two innings, but ultimately Doosan held off Samsung. Lee Yong-chan recorded his first win of the season and Ham Duk-joo notched his second save of the season.
Below is my pick for the Doosan Bears vs Samsung Lions. All odds are from FanDuel Indiana Sportsbook.
Doosan Bears (-194) vs Samsung Lions (+158): O/U 10.5 (-134/+106)
Pitching Match-Up: Raul Alcantara (2-1, 4.00 ERA) vs Kim Dae-woo (0-0, 3.86 ERA)
Raul Alcantara is riding a two-game winning streak and is coming off a gem against the KIA Tigers. The righty gave up just one earned run, on five hits, in seven innings as the Bears came away with the 6-4 win. Alcantara is averaging six innings pitched per game, 2.7 earned runs, 7.7 hits, and 5.3 strikeouts.
Kim Dae-woo is making his first start of the season, but the righty has already appeared in five other games. Dae-woo is averaging 1.4 innings per game, 0.6 earned runs, and 1.0 hits. The righty has not made a start since the 2018 season.
Preview:
The Doosan Bears are middle of the pack in a lot of statistical categories, but that has not stopped them from putting up one of the better records in the league. Doosan is fifth best in run differential (+3), fourth best in hits differential (+4), and have the third best home run differential (+3).
You won’t be surprised to hear that the Lions stats are not great and completely back up their poor record to start the season. Samsung has the second worst run differential (-26), second worst hit differential (-28), and the worst home run differential (-10).
The Samsung Lions home stadium has been very pitcher friendly this season as games have averaged just 8.78 runs per game (third fewest), 14.56 hits (fewest), 3.00 doubles per game (second fewest), 0.11 triples (fewest), and 2.44 home runs (third most).
Prediction: Give me the Doosan Bears in this one.
KBO Picks Record: 7-5
