As baseball remains in hiatus due to the coronavirus, we continue simulating games for the 2020 MLB season. Here are the results for 4/17-4/19 for the NL.
The swinging gate that is the National League Central race between Cincinnati and St. Louis swung back toward the Cardinals this weekend. Trailing by one game Friday morning in the NL simulation, the Cardinals swept a three-game series in Colorado while the Reds lost to out of three to the New York Yankees in the Bronx.
It’s the fourth straight series involving a lead change for the two NL Central front-runners.
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The Arizona Diamondbacks took two of three from the visiting San Diego Padres and continued to frustrate the Los Angeles’ Dodgers plans to dominate the NL West. When the Dodgers lost two of three to the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates, Arizona regained a one-game lead.
In the East, Philadelphia lost one game of its four and one-half game advantage over the Atlanta Braves. Atlanta swept the visiting San Francisco Giants while the Miami Marlins managed to take one game – and nearly grabbed two — in Philadelphia.
Matters were less cheery at Citi Field, where the Mets – pondering how to get past the loss of Noah Syndergaard – were swept by the Milwaukee Brewers. With the losses, the Mets fell behind Miami into the NL East cellar.
Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds collected five more hits in Los Angeles and officially assumed command of the National League batting race from Fernando Tatis, who remained sidelined by an injury. Reynolds is now hitting .416, 25 points higher than Dodger star Cody Bellinger. Arizona’s Ketel Marte, at .386, remains a strong third.
Bellinger did add two home runs and seven RBIs against the Pirates, giving him sole possession of the lead in both categories. Through 23 Dodger games, he has 11 home runs and 29 RBIs.
Atlanta’s Sean Newcomb became the league’s first five-game winner when the Braves beat the Giants 4-1 on Saturday. St. Louis’ Miles Mikolas allowed one earned run in six innings in Colorado to retain the ERA lead at 0.90 while teammate John Flaherty struck out 11 Giants on Saturday to assume the lead in that category with 47, two more than Max Scherzer.