Photo: Doug Gray

San Diego Padres 8, Cincinnati Reds 5 in Strat-O-Matic 2020 season simulation game 53

05/25/2020

Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Padres	0	4	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	8	11	0
Reds	0	0	0	2	0	3	0	0	0	0	5	9	0

Matt Bowman had his first subpar relief outing of the season, allowing the San Diego Padres (29-25) to score three times in the top of the 10th inning on their way to an 8-5 extra-inning victory over the Cincinnati Reds (27-26) at Great American Ball Park.

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!

San Diego jumped on sim Reds starter Wade Miley for four runs in the top of the second, capped by a three-run homer by Fernando Tatis Jr. Cincinnati started the road back in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Mike Moustakas. Freddy Galvis plated Phillip Ervin with the second run of the inning with a two-out double, but Jesse Winker was thrown out at the plate trying to score from first base on Galvis’ double to end the inning.

The sim Reds scored three in the bottom of the sixth to temporarily take the lead, with all of the runs coming on home-run power from Eugenio Suarez (his team-leading 14th) and Winker (his third). But San Diego came right back in the top of the seventh to tie the score at 5-5, as Michael Lorenzen surrendered a two-out run-scoring triple to Tatis.

The first two Padres batters in the 10th inning reached against Bowman, and the visitors turned that opportunity into three runs which would ultimately result in a 2-2 split of the four-game series. Cincinnati’s first two batters in the bottom of the 10th reached base against San Diego relief ace Kirby Yates, who suffered his first blown save of the year in Friday’s sim Reds win. But with runners on second and third and nobody out, Yates bowed his back and shut down the Reds without any runs scoring to finish the game.

Despite the loss, the sim Reds have won seven of their past nine and 10 of their last 13 games.

Division-leading St. Louis won, and the Cincinnati loss dropped the sim Reds three games behind the division leaders and into third place. The Cubs were idle, and therefore moved a half-game ahead of the Reds into second place by themselves.

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

B-Subbed Defensively (2B) For Paddack In 6th Inning
D-Pinch Hit For Strahm In 8th Inning
G-Pinch Hit For Castillo In 10th Inning

A-Pinch Hit For Miley In 5th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Lorenzen In 7th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Winker In 9th Inning
F-Pinch Hit For Iglesias In 9th Inning

Standings following the May 25 games:

NL Central	WON	LOST	PCT	GB
Cardinals	31	24	.564	0.0
Cubs	28	26	.519	2.5
Reds	27	26	.509	3.0
Brewers	27	27	.500	3.5
Pirates	23	30	.434	7.0

The 2020 schedule as currently constituted has the Reds opening a three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates Tuesday at Great American Ball Park. Luis Castillo will pitch for the sim Reds, while left-hander Derek Holland pitches for the Pirates.

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.

Japan’s NPB set to start on June 19th

Jim Allen of jballallen.com is reporting that the Nippon Professional Baseball League is set to start their regular season on June 19th, which is about three months later than they had initially planned.

Teams in both leagues are slated to play 120-game seasons, with 24 games against each league opponent, no interleague, and no all-star break. Each team will have four practice-game series starting from June 2. The season will start behind closed doors as they have already done in Taiwan’s CPBL and South Korea’s KBO.

The Jim Day Podcast: The Rob Ribble Edition

In the latest episode to drop of The Jim Day Podcast, the guest to join Day is former Cincinnati Reds reliever Rob Dibble. You can listen on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever else you get your favorite podcast at. Or you can just listen below – but we still suggest subscribing to the podcast because it’s outstanding.

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.

All players’ batting stats

All players’ pitching stats

Batting and pitching player stats by team

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:

Commenter/ “Manager”	WON	LOST	PCT
Jon Davis	6	1	.857
Peter Onte	2	1	.667
BK	7	4	.636
James Owens	3	2	.600
Gonzo Reds	2	2	.500
Redsfan4life	2	2	.500
Doug Gray	1	1	.500
RedsEuphoria	1	1	.500
Tomn	1	1	.500
AirborneJayJay	0	1	.000
Jeff	0	1	.000
Mark Moore	0	1	.000
Tom Mitsoff	0	1	.000
VaRedsFan	0	1	.000
Don	0	2	.000
Melvin	0	2	.000

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’ performance based on statistics that their statistical experts project for each player in the 2020 season. 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.