Clayton Kershaw pitched eight innings of one-hit baseball to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers (56-29) to a convincing 8-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds (42-43) at Dodger 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 only hit Kershaw allowed was a second-inning home run by Curt Casali that gave the sim Reds a short-lived 1-0 lead. The Dodgers tied it against starter and loser Trevor Bauer in the bottom of the second, and went on to score in four of the final five innings against Reds pitching to leave no doubt as to the final outcome. Second baseman Gavin Lux had four hits and knocked in three runs to lead the LA attack.

Interestingly, it was the second consecutive day the sim Reds were involved in a one-hitter. Luis Castillo pitched one Sunday for Cincinnati in a 13-0 win over Washington. Kershaw improved his record to 12-2, the most wins in the Strat-O-Matic sim league.

After today’s sim games, the Brewers stand alone in first place in the NL Central after their win over the Cubs, as all of the other division member teams lost. The Reds are four games behind and in fourth place.

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

B-Pinch Hit For Stephenson In 8th Inning

A-Pinch Hit For Pederson In 6th Inning

Standings following the June 29 games: 

The 2020 schedule has the Reds at Dodger Stadium Tuesday for the second game of the four-game series. Anthony DeSclafani pitches for the sim Reds, and righthander Walker Buehler will start for LA.

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.

60-man roster transaction rule breakdown

Levi Weaver of The Athletic has an interesting breakdown of the 60-man roster transaction rules with regards to 40-man roster players, positive COVID-19 tests and how that works with the 60-man, what would happen in a situation if there’s a “team outbreak”, and more over on twitter in a long thread. If you’re interested in you can see the entire thing right here.

Over at Fangraphs, Craig Edwards also has a piece up with some of the things we learned from the 60-day player pool.

Mike Leake opts out of playing in 2020

Former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Mike Leake is opting to not play in 2020. His agent Danny Horwits put out a statement on the decision for Leake. He will not be paid beyond the initial money paid up front by MLB, leaving roughly $5,000,000 on the table by choosing to not play this season.

A statement from Mike Leake's agent, Danny Horwits of Beverly Hills Sports Council: pic.twitter.com/bQctIlUTml

— Zach Buchanan (@ZHBuchanan) June 29, 2020

Expect the schedule in “about a week”

Bob Nightengale of USA Today is reporting that we should expect to see the Major League Baseball schedule in about a week from today.

Major League Baseball plans to release their 2020 schedule in about a week, waiting until after players report to training camps and undergo COVID tests this week. They'll also check with health/government officials on the status of each #MLB city. The 1st workouts are Friday.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) June 29, 2020

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.