2020 MLB Season: Simulating NL games, April 17-19
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.
2020 MLB Season: Simulating NL Games (April 17-19)
National League East
Miami gave the division-leading Phillies all they wanted. Isan Diaz’s two-run home run capped a three-run Marlins’ second inning on Friday and Sandy Alcantara took it from there in a 3-1 win. The Phillies bounced back Saturday to take an 11-4 decision behind Logan Forsythe’s four RBIs.
Then on Sunday, the Phillies survived a four-run Marlins first to win 7-6 behind Jake Arrieta. J.t. Realmuto’s pinch-hit double set off a two-run Phillies bottom of the ninth to offset a 6-5 Marlins advantage. Rhys Hoskins’ base hit sent the game-ending runs across.
The Braves held the visiting Giants to just three weekend runs. Mike Soroka pitched into the sixth inning during Friday’s 4-2 victory, Newcom dominated the Giants over seven innings on Saturday, and Felix Hernandez held the Giants to two hits over seven innings of a 2-0 Sunday shutout.
The Cubs finally shook off their eight-game losing streak, winning two of the final three games of their four-game weekend series in Washington. Javier Baez’s 10th inning home run broke a 2-2 tie on Friday, then on Saturday Kyle Hendricks shut out the Nationals on three hits in a 2-0 Cub victory. Washington, which had won the Thursday series opener, salvaged a split 4-3 on Sunday behind Stephen Strasburg.
The Mets’ offense fell asleep against Milwaukee. J.D. Davis and Robinson Cano homered Friday to account for the team’s only three runs all weekend in a 13-3 pounding. Jacob DeGrom allowed four runs, although just one earned, in five innings.
Freddy Peralta, Brian Anderson, and Alex Claudio combined to shut out the Mets Saturday and Sunday on just six hits, only one for extra bases.
2020 MLB Season: Simulating NL games, April 13-16. light. Related Story
W-L Pct GB
Philadelphia 16-7 .696 —
Atlanta 13-11 .542 3.5
Washington 9-12 .429 6
Miami 9-13 .409 6.5
New York 8-14 .364 7.5
2020 MLB Season: Simulating NL Games (April 17-19)
National League Central
The Reds lost two weekend nail-biters in New York. For more on that series, see this link.
Those defeats enabled the Cardinals to reclaim first place, and their strong pitching allowed them to do so in Denver.
On Friday, Mikolas held the Rockies to two runs on just three this in a 3-2 St. Louis win. Tommy Edman homered with Matt Carpenter on a base to tie the game 2-2 in the fifth, and Dexter Fowler’s eighth-inning home run off Carlos Estevez provided the winning margin. John Gant picked up the save.
The Cardinals and Rockies were tied 3-3 into the 11th inning. Then Yadier Molina’s base hit off Scott Oberg sent DeJong and Tyler O’Neill, who had doubled, home for the decisive runs. Giovanny Gallegos pitched the final two innings for the victory.
The Cardinals completed the sweep Sunday when DeJong homered off Yency Almonte in the eighth inning to break a 5-5 deadlock. St. Louis added an insurance run in the ninth to set the 7-5 final behind six strong innings from Dakota Hudson. Gant got the win.
Related Story. 2020 MLB Season: Simulating AL games, April 13-16. light
W-L Pct GB
St. Louis 14-8 .636 —
Cincinnati 12-8 .600 1
Milwaukee 11-10 .524 2.5
Chicago 9-13 .409 5
Pittsburgh 9-13 .409 5
2020 MLB Season: Simulating NL Games (April 17-19)
National League West
The Pirates and Dodgers combined for 44 runs in their three weekend games. Pittsburgh won the series opener 8-5 thanks in large measure to Derek Holland’s eight decent, if not dominant, innings. He allowed five runs, only three of them earned and left with an 8-5 lead made possible by a 14-hit Pirate attack against Dodger starter Alex Wood.
Josh Bell’s three hits accounted for two runs and the Pirates rode a four-run fifth to a 6-5 win over Ross Stripling. Then on Sunday, the Dodgers asserted themselves, ripping Joe Musgrove and four Pittsburgh relievers for 23 hits in an 18-2 pasting. Bellinger’s six hits, one a home run, drove home six runs. Mookie Betts had five hits, Corey Seager and Joc Pederson both enjoyed four-hit days and Seager drove in three runs.
Clayton Kershaw, the fortunate benefactor of all that offense, shut out Pittsburgh through six innings.
Arizona rebounded from a Friday defeat to take two of three against visiting San Diego. The Padres won in 11 innings on Friday when Eric Hosmer’s home run broke up a 1-1 tie. Zach Davies allowed just that single run and two hits through his seven innings of work.
Arizona showed its muscle on Saturday, getting home runs from Starling Marte, Stu Vogt, Christian Walker, and Nick Ahmed. The result was an 8-4 decision. On Sunday, the Diamondbacks spotted San Diego a pair of first-inning runs and then rolled them 7-3 behind Robbie Ray. Vogt’s four hits included two doubles and yielded four runs; Eduardo Escobar drove in three runs with three this, two of them doubles.
Related Story. 2020 MLB Season: Simulating NL games, April 10-12. light
W-L Pct GB
Arizona 15-8 .652 —
Los Angeles 14-9 .609 1
San Diego 12-10 .545 2.5
Colorado 7-14 .333 7
San Francisco 7-16 .304 8
2020 MLB Season: Simulating NL Games (April 17-19)
Coming up…
The NL Central race comes to a head when the Reds and Cardinals collide for four games, one of them a Thursday makeup in Cincinnati. Before that, the teams meet three times in St. Louis with the division lead at stake.
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West leader Arizona travels to Atlanta for Tuesday-Thursday games against the Braves. Meanwhile, the Dodgers are in Washington to face the Nationals.
The Phillies put their NL East margin to the test with Tuesday and Wednesday games against the visiting Texas Rangers.
Following up on its sweep of the Mets, Milwaukee travels to Pittsburgh for Tuesday-through-Thursday contests against the volatile Pirates. The Cubs return home from their road trip for three games against the Padres, who are looking forward to the return of shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr.
The Mets try to find their offense at home in a Monday game against Atlanta followed by three more with the visiting Marlins. Their lengthy injury list should get shorter when outfielder Ryan Cordell and infielder Luis Guillorme both return, probably Wednesday. Miami manager Don Mattingly said he expects outfielder Corey Dickerson, hobbled for several games, to be back to full availability by mid-week.
Next. San Diego Padres: The franchise all-time bracket. dark
San Francisco hosts Colorado for Tuesday through Thursday games in a battle to escape the division cellar and the National League’s worst record.