In this 2020 MLB season sim, the Blue Jays lose steam in an unlikely place.
Toronto’s seemingly relentless drive to the top of the 2020 simulated AL East standings hit an unlikely stumbling block this week.
Coming off a stretch in which they won 11 straight and 14 of 15 to move within a half-game of the division-leading New York Yankees, the schedule provided the Jays a chance to feast during three games at Rogers Centre against the suffering Seattle Mariners.
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Instead, it was the Jays who suffered, Seattle rising up to take two of the three games and drop the Blue Jays one more game behind the Yankees in the simulated AL East. New York, which took two of three mid-week games from the Kansas City Royals, now leads Toronto by a game and a half.
It continued a curious performance pattern for the Mariners, who are an entirely respectable 8-10 against three of the AL powerhouses – the Jays, Yankees and Houston Astros – and 19-33 against the rest of the world.
Toronto carried all the momentum of an 11-game winning streak into Tuesday’s opener and made short work of their visitors. Six home runs – two by Cavan Biggio, one each from Teoscar Hernandez, Lourdes Gurriel, Derek Fisher, and Ryan McGuire — made life easy for Matt Shoemaker, 7-4, who was pulled after six innings with the game on cruise control. Toronto walked away with a 15-1 decision.
But that was it. The Mariners just as stunningly turned the tables on Tanner Roark, 3-3, Wednesday, touching him for eight runs inside of three innings of what would develop into a 15-2 blowout. Mariners batters lit up Roark and reliever Ryan Borucki for 10 runs – although only four of them were earned – in the third inning alone. Errors by Hernandez, Travis Shaw, and Brandon Drury made the outcome more embarrassing.
Marco Gonzalez evened his record at 6-6.
Following those two pitching-optional evenings, the teams locked into a duel Thursday, and James Dunn, 4-5, got the better of Hyun-Jin Ryu, 6-5. Dunn shut out the Jays on a single hit – shortstop Ruben Tejada’s seventh-inning single – and won 3-0 when Kyle Seager’s two-run homer broke up the scoreless battle in the top of the seventh.
In other mid-week AL outcomes, the Houston Astros extended the Texas’ Rangers’ recent series with a three-game sweep at Minute Maid, the Oakland A’s split a pair of games in Detroit, and the Boston Red Sox took two of three from Tampa Bay at Tropicana.
The Minnesota Twins beat Baltimore twice in their three meetings, and the Cleveland Indians held fast by taking two of three from the Chicago White Sox on Chicago’s South Side.
The week’s interleague series went to Miami, which swept a pair of games from the Angels in Anaheim.