2020 MLB Season: Simulating AL games, June 5-7
By Bill Felber
In this 2020 MLB season simulation, Toronto sweeps its way within a half-game of the Yankees.
The Toronto Blue Jays have one of the youngest, most confident teams in Major League Baseball. As the 2020 MLB season approaches the halfway mark, it’s beginning to show.
The Jays this weekend swept a three-game series from the Texas Rangers at Rogers Centre, moving within a half-game of the AL East-leading New York Yankees. That took Toronto’s winning streak to 11 straight and 14 of 15 since May 22.
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
The Blue Jays have gotten dominant pitching during their run, and that was certainly the case against Texas. Hyun-Jin Ryu, 6-4, stopped the Rangers on a single run and five hits for seven innings of Friday’s 6-1 decision. Bo Bichette, one of the team’s core of vaunted young stars, homered twice and drove in three runs in support of Ryu.
Trent Thornton followed that with seven and two-thirds innings of a 9-2 win Tuesday. Thornton, 5-4, scattered eight hits and struck out 11 Rangers. Jays batters feasted on seven home runs off Mike Minor, 7-3, and reliever Luke Farrell, two each by Brandon Drury and Randall Grichuk. Cavan Biggio, Rowdy Tellez, and Travis Shaw also homered.
Related Story. 2020 MLB Season: Simulating NL games, June 1-4. light
Wednesday’s series finale was more of the same. This time Tellez, Vlad Guerrero Jr., Teoscar Hernandez, and Lourdes Gurriel provided the long-ball fireworks in an 8-1 decision. Chase Anderson, 6-3, allowed one run into the sixth inning.
The first-place Yankees held off the charging Jays by taking two of three from the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium. In other weekend games, the Houston Astros swept three straight from the Baltimore Orioles, the Los Angeles to two of three from the Minnesota Twins, and the Kansas City Royals won two of three from the Cleveland Indians. Detroit swept the Chicago White Sox three straight at Guaranteed Rate Field.
In interleague play, the Boston Red Sox swept the Milwaukee Brewers at Fenway Park, the Seattle Mariners took two of three in Miami, and the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics split a pair of games in Oakland.