WBC Odds & Best Bets Today: Schedule, Picks for Friday

The World Baseball Classic is starting to pick up with a premiere pitching matchup on Friday. Read on for our WBC best bets for Friday, March 10.

The World Baseball Classic is catching the attention of fans and that should only continue this weekend as the tournament ramps up.

Shohei Ohtani put on a show in Japan’s opening game and it’s Yu Darvish’s turn early Friday morning against Korea. Meanwhile, Italy will look to stay hot after upsetting Cuba in extra innings on Thursday while Chinese Taipei looks for its first victory in Pool A play.

Here are our WBC best bets for Friday (odds via BetMGM; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).

Friday’s WBC schedule and odds

(Odds via DraftKings)

• Korea (+330) vs. Japan (-410) - 5 a.m. ET
• Italy (-135) vs. Chinese Taipei (+115) - 6 a.m. ET
• China vs. Australia - 10 p.m. ET
• Panama vs. Italy - 11 p.m. ET

Friday’s WBC best bets

• Total: Korea vs. Japan Under 7.5 (+100 via BetMGM) ⭐⭐⭐
• Total: Italy vs. Chinese Taipei over 8.5 (-110 via BetMGM) ⭐⭐⭐

Friday’s WBC top picks

Total: Korea vs. Japan Under 7.5 (+100 via BetMGM) ⭐⭐⭐

This is going to be the best pitching matchup of the tournament thus far withDarvish facing off against Korea’s Kwang Hyun Kim. 

Darvish is a well-established MLB ace while Kim has a 2.97 ERA across 145 2/3 innings in the majors in 2020 and 2021. He’s since gone back over to the KBO where he went 13-3 with a 2.13 ERA in 173 1/3 innings last year.

Japan scored only eight runs against China in a game that had a betting total of 11.5. Korea scored seven runs in its first game, but that was against Australia, not Darvish.

DraftKings has the Under 7.5 at -105 so there is some line value here as well at even money.

Total: Italy vs. Chinese Taipei Over 8.5 (-110 via BetMGM) ⭐⭐⭐

Both Italy and Chinese Taipei had double-digit hits in their opening games. Italy scored six runs— granted, four were in extra innings — on 11 hits against Cuba while Chinese Taipei had only five runs but 13 hits in its loss to Panama.

Neither starting pitcher is particularly impressive in this game. 

Italy’s Ryan Castellani had a 5.82 ERA in 43 1/3 innings in 2020 for the Colorado Rockies and an 11.97 ERA in 29 1/3 innings at Triple-A Las Vegas last season.

Chinese Taipei’s Shao-Ching Chiang had a 4.70 ERA in 120 2/3 innings in the Chinese Professional Baseball League last year after posting a 5.15 ERA in 131 innings in his final minor-league season (2019 at Triple-A).

I’m expecting both sides to be able to put up a handful of runs and get this game over the total at 8.5. 

WBC best bets made 3/9/2023 at 4:53 p.m. ET

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