2020 MLB Season: Simulating NL games, April 20-23

2020 MLB Season: Simulating NL Games (April 20-23)

National League Central

The Cardinals and Reds failed to resolve much of anything. The Cards took two of three scheduled games Monday through Wednesday in St. Louis, then the Reds picked up a Thursday makeup game in Cincinnati. The result was a continuation of St. Louis’ one-game advantage.

Through much of the early season, the constant has been cardinal pitching, and that showed up again. On Monday, Kwang Hyun Kim pitched seven shutout innings in a 1-0 victory settled by Yadier Molina’s run-producing second-inning double. The Tuesday game was a pitcher’s duel between Luis Castillo and Adam Wainwright. Castillo emerged with the 2-1 win on Tucker Barnhart’s eighth-inning single, which scored Eugenio Suarez.

Mikolas led Wednesday’s 5-4 Cardinal victory,  which got a big boost from Paul Goldschmidt’s three-run first inning blast against Wade Miley. On Thursday, Flaherty and Sonny Gray matched up through seven innings of a game that wasn’t resolved until pinch hitter Curt Casali’s 11th inning walk-off double chased Tucker Barnhart home with the deciding run in a  5-4 Reds win.

The Brewers lit into Pirates pitching for 27 runs yet still only managed to take two of three in Pittsburgh. Omar Narvaez led a six-homer Brewer attack Tuesday with three blasts as Milwaukee beat Chris Archer 17-4.

The Brewers took Trevor Williams to task Wednesday in an 8-1 decision, Avisail Garcia and Keston Hiura both going deep. But the bats failed to show up for starter Josh Lindblom Thursday. Derek Holland scattered eight hits into the seventh and Guillermo Heredia homered twice, including a two-run blow in the eighth that erased a 2-1 Milwaukee lead. It gave Pittsburgh a 3-2 victory.

The Padres celebrated the return of Tatis with a 5-3 decision over the Cubs Tuesday. Wil Myers and Eric Hosmer both bit two-run home runs, and Kirby Yates aborted a Cubs comeback attempt in the ninth.

Francisco Mejia pounded out four hits for three RBIs against Jon Lester in Wednesday’s 7-4 Padres win before the Cubs found a savior Thursday in Kyle Hendricks. He allowed just two hits in seven innings of a 5-0 victory.

                                  W-L       Pct          GB

St. Louis               16-10     .615        —

Cincinnati            14-10     .583        1

Milwaukee          13-11     .542        2

Chicago                10-15     .400        5.5

Pittsburgh           10-15     .400        5.5