As we enter week… we lost count… of the lockdown, CttP continues to simulate games for the 2020 MLB season. Here’s what happened in the AL from May 4-7.
The New York Yankees are beginning to pitch, and that’s a troubling prospect for the rest of the American League East.
During three mid-week games of the 2020 AL simulation, Yankee pitchers allowed eight earned runs, an entirely manageable total given the healthy state of the team’s offense. The result: Victories by scores of 6-3, 3-1 and 6-5. In the process, New York resumed command of the division race, seizing a two and one-half game lead on Boston, which was swept at Fenway by the Los Angeles Angels.
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Given injuries to Luis Severino and James Paxton before the simulated season ever started, the state of New York’s pitching has been an ongoing question. That question was only complicated two weeks ago by the sidelining of starter Jordan Montgomery with soreness that is likely to keep him out until late May.
In their absence, though, two new reliables have stepped up. On Tuesday, Jonathan Loaisiga ran his record to 4-1 in a 6-3 inter-league victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Loaisiga pitched six innings, allowing six hits and three runs.
Then on Thursday, Luis Cessa made his third start of the season in place of Montgomery. Facing Baltimore in the opener of those teams’ four-game series in New York, he left after seven innings with a 5-2 lead. The Yanks eventually won 6-5 on D J LeMahieu’s walk-off sacrifice fly scoring Gio Urshela.
Cessa is 3-1 with a 3.38 ERA. As a staff, New York ranks fourth in the AL in pitching at 4.06.
A large portion of the credit for that, of course, belongs to Wednesday’s starter, Gerrit Cole. Since signing as a free agent this winter, Cole has made eight starts with a 3.54 ERA. On Wednesday Cole held the Pirates to seven hits over eight innings of a 3-1 victory with help from Giancarlo Stanton’s first-inning two-run home run. Cole struck out nine.
In other action this week, the Minnesota Twins swept visiting San Francisco to climb past Cleveland in the AL Central. They passed Cleveland, which managed nothing better than a split of four games against the Texas Rangers.
The Toronto Blue Jays swept Baltimore at home, and the Tampa Bay Rays took two of three from the White Sox in Chicago. The Detroit Tigers captured two of three inter-league games from the Colorado Rockies.
In the West, Houston demonstrated its relentless offensive might for fans in Kansas City sweeping the Royals. The Oakland Athletics failed to keep pace, winning only two of three at home against the hapless Seattle Mariners.