2020 MLB Season: Simulating AL games, April 2-5
By Bill Felber
2020 MLB Season: Simulating AL Games (April 2-5)
American League East
The Toronto Blue Jays (7-3) brought their first-week mojo to the Big Apple for a serious test against the sluggish Yankees (3-6). Perhaps when the Yanks get their full lineup back, that will be an intimidating journey for the Canadians, but that moment did not arrive this weekend.
Toronto won two of the three games. The Jays made their presence known in New York’s season opener Thursday, using a 16-hit attack to bury Masahiro Tanaka and the Yankees 10-2. Brandon Drury, Rowdy Tellez, and Reese McGuire all produced three-hit games, Lourdes Gurriel and Teoscar Hernandez both homered.
On Saturday Hyun-Jin Ryu – with bullpen help – shut out the Yanks 2-0 through eight innings. In the bottom of the ninth, Gleyber Torres’ two-run home run tied the game, but that only prolonged New York’s agony as the Jays scored three times in the 12th to win 5-2.
Gio Urshela’s error set up those three decisive unearned runs off Tommy Kahnle.
New York got a bit of consolation behind Jonathan Holder on Sunday. He pitched into the seventh and Torres homered again as the Yanks pulled out a 4-3 win to avoid being swept.
The Boston Red Sox (4-6) hosted Chicago (5-4) at Fenway but managed only one win. It came on Saturday when Collin McHugh delivered seven shutout innings and Andrew Benintendi’s two doubles drove in two runs. The final was 4-2.
Chicago took the series opener 3-2 on Thursday on Dallas Keuchel’s eight innings of five-hit ball, The White Sox left town Sunday breathing hard but victorious, taking a 9-5 lead into the bottom of the ninth and winning 9-8. Evan Marshall gave up the second of Christian Vazquez’s two home runs but recorded the final out.
You can view the results of Baltimore’s series in St. Louis below:
light. Related Story. 2020 MLB Season: Simulating NL games, April 2-5
W-L Pct GB
Toronto 7-3 .700 —
Tampa Bay 6-3 .667 .5
Boston 4-6 .400 3
Baltimore 3-6 .333 3.5
New York 3-6 .333 3.5