2020 MLB Season: Simulating NL games, July 6-9

In this 2020 MLB season sim, the Giants may be suffering, but at least they split with the Athletics.

The San Francisco Giants are wandering through an awful season. At least they’re also making life miserable for their closest MLB neighbors.

The Giants faced the Oakland Athletics for a pair of mid-week games at Oracle Park and came away with a split.

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It didn’t impact the Giants’ record much; they’re buried in last place in the NL West. It did, however, slow down Oakland’s efforts to pick up ground on the AL West-leading Houston Astros, who added a half-game to their division lead.

The Giants and A’s have now completed their season’s series against one another, and San Francisco got out of it with an even split.

Chris Bassitt started Oakland’s week off well enough, stifling the Giants through seven innings of an eventual 5-0 Oakland victory. That ran Bassitt’s record to 7-10. Matt Olson homered twice.

Then things went poorly in the A’s hopes of closing ground on the Astros. The Giants touched Daniel Mengden for four runs and nine hits in four innings Wednesday, San Francisco winning 5-3. Mike Yastrzemski belted a two-run third-inning home run that put the Giants in front to stay.

In other mid-week NL games, the Atlanta Braves won three parts of a four-game series with the   Pittsburgh Pirates, the St. Louis Cardinals took two of three from the Washington Nationals, the Colorado Rockies won two parts of their three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Los Angeles Dodgers won two of three in San Diego. The Padres also finished off a four-game home series, beating the Mets 4-2.

In inter-league games, the Philadelphia Phillies lost two of three in Houston, the Mets took a two-game series from the Yankees, Miami beat Texas two of three, the Cubs swept a two-game series with the White Sox, the Indians did the same in Cincinnati, and Milwaukee split a pair of games with Tampa Bay. Following that series, the Brewers opened a four-game weekend series against the Rockies with a 7-4 victory.

In this 2020 MLB season sim, in the NL East, Atlanta stretches its advantage.

The Braves are in the process of bidding a fond farewell to the rest of the NL East. By taking three of four from the Pirates, they’ve opened up a six-game lead on the runner-up Phillies, the largest margin this season,

Pittsburgh claimed the Monday series opener 2-1 behind Steven Brault, who held Atlanta scoreless for seven innings. Brault, 4-4, allowed just four hits and benefitted from Jose Osuna’s three hits, one of them leaving the yard.

Then the Braves asserted their dominance. They won Tuesday’s game 8-6 with the help of a pair of Ronald Acuna Jr. home runs, then scored four first-inning runs Wednesday on the way to an 11-4 victory. Max Fried picked up that decision, his 11th win against five losses.

On Thursday Felix Hernandez allowed just three hits over eight innings and the Braves won 2-0 on home runs by Acuna and Travis d’Arnaud.

The St. Louis Cardinals solidified their recently obtained grip on first place in the NL Central by taking two of three in Washington. Tommy Edman homered in the seventh inning Tuesday to tie the game 2-2, then homered again in the ninth to win it 3-2 for Carlos Gallegos, 8-1. Edman was all the offense St. Louis had, Stephen Strasburg and Will Harris holding the visitors to five hits.

The Nats won an 8-2 decision Wednesday thanks to a pair of home runs from Eric Thames.  But the visitors dominated Thursday’s series wrapup, winning 12-2. Paul Goldschmidt’s grand slam had more than a little to do with the outcome, as did Nats starter Joe Ross’s –pitching. Ross, 4-7, lasted five and two-thirds innings in which he allowed 10 runs on 14 hits and three walks.

                                                W-L          Pct           GB

Atlanta Braves                   57-38     .600        —

Philadelphia Phillies         50-43     .538        6

Washington Nationals     47-47     .500        9.5

New York Mets                  41-53     .436        15.5

Miami Marlins                   36-57     .387        20