South Korea vs. Japan
August 4, 2021 6:00 am EDT
The Line: Japan -275 / South Korea +220 // Total: 8
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Japan and South Korea face off on Wednesday morning in an Olympic baseball showdown. This is a semi-finals matchup, with both of these teams facing high expectations from their country to take home the gold.
There is a lot of pressure on Japan to take home the gold, and they have a lot of confidence heading into this game. Japan’s last game was against the United States and they were down heading into the 9th inning but they scored one run to tie it, and in the 10th inning they had a walk-off. This is a Japan team that is very disciplined and they are also very fundamentally sound. In the last game, Japan was led by Yanagita Yuki who tied the game in the 9th inning, and he finished the game with two RBI’s. The pitching in the last game was a bit suspect, and they need the pitching to be a little better in this game.
On the other side of this matchup is South Korea who have looked impressive so far during the Olympics. In the last game against Israel it was the offense that was the difference scoring 11 runs and that led to the 10 point victory. Park Hae-Min has been the best player for Israel and in the last game he finished with two hits, two runs and two RBI’s. .Kang Baek-ho also had a big game finishing with four hits and two RBI;s. In this game, South Korea is going to need the offense to be good early and to really try to put pressure on Japan.
South Korea might not win this game, but they have the pieces to keep it close. Look for South Korea to find offensive success early in this game, and South Korea will cover the +1.5.
