Lotte Giants vs. Samsung Lions – 7/19/20 KBO Baseball Pick, Odds, and Prediction

The Samsung Lions and Lotte Giants meet Sunday morning in South Korea KBO baseball action at the Daegu Samsung Lions Park.    

The Samsung Lions need a victory here after losing five of their last nine games. The Samsung Lions have allowed five or less runs in 17 of their last 29 games. In their latest effort, Lee Sung-gon and Lee Sung-gyu combined for four hits and three RBI while Ben Lively allowed two runs and five hits in five innings of work. The Samsung Lions have won 22 of their last 35 games overall. David Buchanan gets the ball tonight for the Samsung Lions.     

The Lotte Giants look for a win after winning five of their last nine games. The Lotte Giants offense has produced five or more runs in eight of their last 10 games. In the latest effort, Heo Il and An Chi-hong combined for two hits and two RBI while Park Se-woong allowed two runs and five hits in 3.2 innings of work. The Lotte Giants have lost 18 of their last 29 games overall. Dan Straily gets the ball tonight for the Lotte Giants.    

The Samsung Lions have won six of the last seven meetings against the Lotte Giants, but the last 16 meetings have been split down the middle. Six of the last 10 meetings between the Giants and Lions have produced double-digit run totals. 

This should be an excellent game between two of the better starters in the KBO, as Buchanan has a 3.48 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in 77.2 innings while Straily has a 2.07 ERA and 0.97 WHIP in 82.2 innings. Buchanan has allowed a combined three earned runs in his last 22 innings and Straily has allowed zero runs and six hits in his last 15 innings. You can obviously make a case for either side with just how dominant both pitchers have been, but the difference for me is that Straily has been more consistent over the course of the entire season and has pitched back to back shutouts.

As long as Straily continues to pitch at this level, I’m backing him whenever he takes the mound.