2020 MLB Season: Simulating AL games, April 2-5
By Bill Felber
As baseball remains in hiatus due to the coronavirus, we continue simulating games for the 2020 MLB season. Here are the results for April 2-5.
Ten games into a simulated 2020 MLB season, the Minnesota Twins are flying, the Houston Astros have an AL West fight on their hands, and the New York Yankees are wondering when the real season starts.
The Twins ran their winning streak to eight games with a three-game home sweep of the Oakland Athletics. At the other end of the scale, the Seattle Mariners ended a season-opening eight-game losing streak and did it in a big way. In the Saturday game of a three-game weekend series in Kansas City the Mariners pummeled the Royals 20-8.
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Through the second weekend of play, strong individual performances have also begun to take shape. White Sox ace Lucas Giolito ran his season-opening scoreless streak to 13 innings, and his strikeout total to 18. Tampa Bay’s Charlie Morton allowed just one earned run in his first 13 innings of work.
Offensively, Japanese import Yoshitorro Tsutsugo continued to make a big impression in Tampa Bay. Tsutsugo ran his batting average to .500, matching Kansas City’s Hunter Dozier. New Minnesota signee Josh Donaldson added four more RBIs against the Athletics to run his total to 13. That was one more than Dozier, and Houston’s Yuli Gurriel.
Certainly, the most surprisingly underwhelming start unfolded in the Bronx, where the Yankees – minus Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, James Paxton, and other high-priced talents — won only three of their first nine games. The good news: Stanton is projected back next week, and Judge’s return probably will follow quickly.
Here’s a summary of the games from April 2 through April 5.