A second-inning two-run home run by Nick Senzel got the Cincinnati Reds (41-42) out to an early lead which they would not relinquish in registering a 4-2 victory over the Washington Nationals (50-33) 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!

Winning Redleg Nation commenter/manager Jon “Sparky” Davis started a primarily right-handed batting lineup against Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin, and that lineup produced four runs over the first four innings. After Senzel’s home run, Eugenio Suarez hit a solo home run in the third inning, his 25th, and switch hitter Freddy Galvis (batting right-handed) singled in Senzel, who had doubled, in the fourth.

Four Reds batters had two hits — Suarez, Senzel, Curt Casali and Galvis — and all were right-handed batters.

Sim Reds starter and winner Wade Miley held the Nationals to only a run and six hits in five and one-third innings. He was followed by Joel Kuhnel, who pitched two-thirds of a scoreless inning to extend his shutout streak to five and two-thirds innings over six appearances. He’s allowed only three hits and no walks, while striking out five.

After today’s sim games, the Brewers took a one percentage point lead in the division over the Cubs and Cardinals. The Reds are three games behind the three teams in fourth place.

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

B-Pinch Hit For Corbin In 7th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Guerra In 9th Inning

A-Pinch Hit For Kuhnel In 6th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Ervin In 7th Inning
D-Subbed Defensively (RF) For Strop In 8th Inning

Standings following the June 27 games: 

The 2020 schedule has the Reds hosting the Washington Nationals in the rubber game of the three-game set Sunday. Luis Castillo will start for the sim Reds, and right-hander Anibel Sanchez will pitch for the Nationals.

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.

Reds sign more draft picks

The Reds announced that they’ve signed 3rd, 4th, and 5th round draft picks Bryce Bonnin, Mac Wainwright, and Joe Boyle. With the signing of 1st round pick Austin Hendrick yesterday, Cincinnati only has two draft picks remaining to sign.

Cincinnati Reds sign draft picks Bryce Bonnin, Joe Boyle

2020 could start with the Yankees vs Nationals

Joel Sherman and Andrew Marchand of The New York Post are reporting that the one of the first games of the 2020 season will be on July 23rd when the New York Yankees will head to Washington D.C. to take on the defending World Series champion Nationals – “likely in prime time”, according to the story. This is technically not official yet, as the teams themselves need to verify the schedule – which is expected to happen within the next week. July 23rd will not feature a full schedule of games, but this will not be the only game on the day. The other games, however, haven’t been leaked/released yet for the first day of the regular season.

A shortened season is good news for the Reds

Steven Martano of Beyond the Box Score looked at which teams may benefit the most from a shortened 2020 season and among the teams near the top were the Cincinnati Reds. Looking at the increased playoff odds, the Reds saw a jump from 23.1% to 37.6% – the second biggest jump of any team. Only the White Sox jumping from 18.7% to 36.8% was a larger increase.

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

Jon Davis has the priority for Sunday’s lineup since he was the winning manager today. 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.