St. Louis Cardinals 5, Cincinnati Reds 3 in Strat-O-Matic 2020 season simulation game 24

Matt Wieters’ two-run home run with two out in the bottom of the 10th inning spoiled a dramatic comeback by the Cincinnati Reds (10-14) and propelled the St. Louis Cardinals (14-11) to a 5-3 win.

That was the result today as Strat-O-Matic games of Glen Head, N.Y., continued its announced plan to simulate the entire 2020 Major League Baseball season on a day-by-day basis for as long as actual game play is on hold.

Help set the lineup, batting order for the simulated Reds:

Have you ever dreamed of your opportunity to “manage” the Reds? Now is your chance. Learn more below!

Down to their last out in the top of the ninth inning and trailing by one, the sim Reds’ Mike Moustakas — pinch-hitting for Phillip Ervin — stunned the home crowd at Busch Stadium by hitting a solo homer to tie the game. Nick Castellanos followed with a double to put the go-ahead run in scoring position, but Eugenio Suarez struck out to end the threat.

In the bottom of the ninth, Michael Lorenzen escaped a big problem that was of his own doing. With one out, Tommy Edman hit a dribbler along the line that Lorenzen fielded and then threw away down the right-field line. The play was scored an infield hit and a two-base error. With the winning run at third and the Reds infield drawn in, Tyler O’Neill hit a grounder to shortstop Freddy Galvis, who threw home in time for Curt Casali to put the tag on Edman and prevent the winning run from scoring.

However, all of the ninth-inning Cincinnati heroics went for naught. After Lorenzen retired the first two batters in the bottom of the 10th, Dexter Fowler singled and stole second, followed by Wieters’ game-winning shot.

Luis Castillo was shaky, allowing three runs in the first two innings, but stabilized thereafter, as did the Reds bullpen until the 10th inning.

The Reds have still not won the rubber game of a three-game series after 24 games and numerous attempts. The only series they have won this year was taking three of four from the Phillies in early April. For the year, Cincinnati is now 2-4 in six games against St. Louis.

With Chicago, St. Louis and Milwaukee all winning, the sim Reds dropped into fourth place, six full games behind the Cubs.

Here is the box score, as provided by Strat-O-Matic:

A-Pinch Hit For Castillo In 6th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Aquino In 8th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Garrett In 9th Inning
F-Pinch Hit For Ervin In 9th Inning

B-Pinch Hit For Whitley In 6th Inning
D-Subbed Defensively (CF) For Brebbia In 9th Inning
G-Subbed Defensively (LF) For Gallegos In 10th Inning

Standings following the April 22 games:

The 2020 schedule as currently constituted has the Reds off Thursday, then returning home to open a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday. Sonny Gray will pitch for Cincinnati, and lefthander Alex Young will throw for Arizona.

Help set the lineup, batting order for the simulated Reds:

Have you ever dreamed of your opportunity to “manage” the Reds? Now is your chance.

Strat-O-Matic has agreed to allow Redleg Nation to submit the Cincinnati Reds’ lineups for each day’s simulated game. We want all of our readers who want to participate to get involved.

Here is how it will work:

• In each wrap up of that day’s simulated game, Redleg Nation will post the opposing starting pitcher for the next game. You will know who the pitcher is and whether he is left-handed or right-handed, and you can use that information in creating a lineup for the next game, and submitting it in the comments below. “Splits” such as performance vs. left-handers or right-handers are replicated in the Strat-O-Matic game algorithm, and therefore should be considered.
• We will accept lineups from every reader who wants to submit one. The lineup that will be submitted to Strat-O-Matic each day will be the one that receives the most positive replies (in effect, “yes” votes) from readers other than the submitter. In case of ties:
  • First tiebreaker: Lineup submitted by the reader who has had the fewest number of opportunities as a “manager.”
  • Second tiebreaker: Lineup submitted earliest in the comment thread. (So get your lineup in “early” each day.)
• What is “early?” Redleg Nation posts these articles daily between 5 and 6 p.m. Eastern time. Strat-O-Matic’s deadline for us to submit a lineup for the next day’s game is midnight. On most days, we’ll do this before “bedtime,” which is typically between 10:30 and 11 Eastern time.

Redsfan4life will have priority for Wednesday since he submitted a winning lineup for Tuesday. Have fun with this! If you have any questions, please post them in the comment string below. Here are the “managerial records” of our Redleg Nation participants to date:

About Strat-O-Matic

Strat-O-Matic has been in the sports simulation business since the 1960s. A USA Today article contained this explanation:

Strat-O-Matic and other baseball simulations use statistics from the previous season to create “cards” for each player on a roster. The team managers select the batting order and the starting pitcher. From there, a series of dice rolls and calculations determines the outcome of each at-bat.

Strat-O, as it’s known to longtime players, first gained its immense popularity as a board game. The company has since expanded to a downloadable Windows version and one that’s played online. A few years ago, it introduced Baseball Daily – a new iteration that combined the player cards from the previous season with statistics from the real season being played at the same time.

Unlike many video games, the Strat-O-Matic results are based on algorithms that account for players’ actual past performance. It’s not a game played with a joystick that relies more on the skill of the person with the video game controller in his or her hand.

The simulation software will keep comprehensive statistics for all teams for the season, so we’ll be able to track year-to-date leaders in many statistical categories. Our current plan is to provide statistical leader summaries here at Redleg Nation each Sunday. You can follow the season at Strat-O-Matic.com, where they plan to post the results from each day’s schedule at 2 p.m. Eastern time.

News/Notes from around baseball

One of the things we would have during the season in the game threads was a section comprised of news and notes for the day. While there’s a lot less going on these days in the baseball world than usual for this time of year, there still are some things that are worth highlighting. When there are, we’ll be adding them to these daily simulation threads.

It’s been a day that we actually published multiple articles already that featured plenty of news and notes because they felt a little more important than just being a footnote in this article. Still, not everyone comes to the site directly through the front page, so we’re going to link to our stories published earlier today below.

The Red Sox were also stealing signs, but barely get punished

The Boston Red Sox were found by Major League Baseball to be using video to steal signs and relay that information to hitters. Much like the Houston Astros were. And yet they were punished less severe than the Astros were – who weren’t punished nearly enough for what they did. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Red Sox will lose a 2020 2nd round draft pick, manager Alex Cora is banned through the 2020 playoffs (but only for his conduct with the Astros, somehow. He is no longer the manager of the Red Sox, or employed by any team in Major League Baseball.), and their video replay person is banned for both the 2020 and 2021 seasons from doing the video replay job.

BREAKING: #RedSox penalties:

*Loss of 2020 2nd-round pick.

*Ban of replay operator J.T. Watkins through 2020 playoffs and from doing same job in ‘21.

*Ban of Alex Cora through ‘20 playoffs, but only for conduct with #Astros.

Story with @EvanDrellich: https://t.co/6Ysn9hsRFa

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) April 22, 2020

2020 MLB Draft Rankings have been updated

Both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America have updated their 2020 Draft Rankings in the last week. We still aren’t entirely sure when the draft will be held this year, other than a vague “July” date. And we aren’t even sure how many rounds it will have – but there will be at least five of them (there are usually 40). But we do have updated rankings of the top 150 (MLB Pipeline) and top 400 (Baseball America) that are now available.

2020 MLB Draft Prospect Rankings Updates