St. Louis Cardinals 3, Cincinnati Reds 2 in 2020 season simulation game 78

Three early runs by the St. Louis Cardinals (42-35) stood up for an important 3-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds (38-40) at Busch Stadium.

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!

The sim Reds were hoping for a three-game sweep of the NL Central-leading Redbirds, which would have pulled Cincinnati within two and a half games of the Cards.

St. Louis scored two in the first on a two-run single by Yadier Molina, and the third run in the third inning came on a bases-loaded infield hit by Tyler O’Neill, all off starter and loser Wade Miley.

Eugenio Suarez hit a solo home run, his team-leading 24th, in the top of the fourth, to make it a 3-1 game. It stayed that way until Mike Moustakas’ RBI single in the eighth inning which made it 3-2. But the rally ended when Suarez hit a fly ball out with the tying run on second base.

Shogo Akiyama’s third-inning single extended his hitting streak to 27 games, longest in this sim season by seven games. He now has enough plate appearances to appear in these other league-leading categories:

• batting average, .369 (first)
• batting average against righthanded pitching, .414 (first)
• on-base percentage, .423 (third)
• runs created per 27 outs, 10.5 (tied for third; this means if you had a batting order of Akiyama one through nine, you’d average 10.5 runs per game)
• total average (bases/outs), 1.075 (sixth)
• OPS, 1.014 (eighth)
• slugging percentage, .591 (eighth)

It would have been very interesting to see his statistics (and the team’s won-loss record) if he had not missed 20 games due to injury. A legitimate argument can be made that he could be considered the best position player in the sim league to date.

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

B-Pinch Hit For Kuhnel In 8th Inning
D-Pinch Ran For Barnhart In 9th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Sims In 9th Inning

A-Pinch Hit For Martinez In 6th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Miller In 8th Inning

Standings following the June 20 games:

The 2020 schedule has the Reds off Monday, then returning home on Tuesday to take on the Cubs, who have been a particular pain in the side of the sim Reds to date, winning six of eight. Luis Castillo will take the mound for the Reds, and lefthander Jose Quintana will pitch for Chicago.

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:

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.