2020 MLB Season: Simulating AL games, June 26-28

In this 2020 MLB season simulation, in the AL East, the Yankees take a back seat.

The National League’s Cubs came into the Bronx on a small run, having won six of nine since returning from their lost weekend against the St. Louis Cardinals in London two weeks ago. Equally importantly, they got Kyle Hendricks back after their ace right-hander had missed a couple of starts with shoulder pain.

Hendricks hardly bowled over the Yankees Friday, allowing 11 hits and six runs – three coming on home runs – in his six and one-third innings of work. But Cubs bats, particularly battery mate Josh Phegley, bailed him out.

Phegley produced a sixth-inning grand slam off Jordan Montgomery gifting Hendricks with a 6-2 lead and the often-shaky Cubs pen made it stand up for a 9-6 win. Willson Contreras, playing left field against left-handed Montgomery, homered in the eighth to deliver the deciding runs. Mike Tauchman homered twice for New York and drove in four runs.

The Yankees won 7-6 in 10 innings Saturday, doing so after erasing a 6-4 Cubs lead in the bottom of the ninth on Gleyber Torres’ two-run home run. But the Cubs closed out the series win Sunday, Yu Darvish going eight innings and allowing just five hits. The final score was 6-2, Kris Bryant homering twice for the Cubs.

The last-place teams in the AL East and Central met in Baltimore, the Orioles having the better of it. On Friday, however, Detroit came out on top 6-3 thanks to Spencer Turnbull’s seven-inning, four-hit performance, C.J. Cron homered twice against the Oriole pen.

Wade LeBlanc shut out the Tigers Saturday with last-out assistance from Shawn Armstrong. Anthony Santander was the whole offensive story for Baltimore, hitting a two-run home run and singling two more runs home. On Sunday the Orioles survived 7-5 thanks to a five-run eighth inning eruption against the Tiger pen after Ivan Nova had stifled them into the seventh inning. All of Baltimore’s runs scored on two swings of the bat, Pedro Severino’s three-run home run in the sixth and Austin Hays’ eighth-inning grand slam.

                                              W-L         Pct        GB

Toronto Blue Jays            47-37     .560        —

New York Yankees          48-38     .558        —

Boston Red Sox               45-39     .536        2

Tampa Bay Rays              42-43     .494        5.5

Baltimore Orioles            29-57     .337     19