Andrew Ortenberg
Show Bio
Olympic baseball is back for the first time since 2008. The action is winding down in Tokyo, and the games so far have been thrilling. We have a big game coming up, a semi-final showdown between South Korea and Team USA. I’ve done really well with these bets recently, and just cashed on Japan -1.5 for our most recent best bet, now let’s keep it going.
You can view all of our Olympics picks here, but right now we’re talking baseball. Let’s dive in.
Olympic baseball Day 9 best bet: Team USA -1.5 (+100)
I don’t feel like laying -210 to take the Americans on the money line, so I’m going with Team USA -1.5. They’ve got a decided advantage here for several reasons. For starters they’ve got a rest advantage, since this game will take place less than 24 hours after South Korea finished their most recent game, a loss to Japan.
On August 1, they essentially played two games in one day, as they had games with start times only 17 hours apart. They’ve got to be a bit exhausted at this point. Team USA, on the other hand, is coming off an off day. South Korea put up only two runs against Japan, and their bats have been quiet in every game except their two against lowly Israel.
South Korea will start Eui-Lee Lee, a KBO rookie who is only 19. This semi-final stage is likely going to be too big for him. He already pitched once in these Olympics and was middling, giving up three runs in five innings to a Dominican Republic offense that struggled all tournament.
Team USA has already beaten South Korea once, and the Koreans mustered only five hits in that game. Four of those were singles and the other was a double. South Korea is now 3-2 in the Olympics. Each of their two losses were decisive, but in two of their three wins, they got pretty lucky. They won in walk-off fashion twice, once when the Dominican Republic melted down and blew a ninth-inning lead, and once on a game-winning hit-by-pitch in extra innings against Israel.
Team USA will start promising prospect Joe Ryan, who threw a gem in his first Olympic start. He gave up only one run across six innings. This one should be decided by multiple scores.
