Cincinnati Reds 5, Pittsburgh Pirates 4 in Strat-O-Matic 2020 season simulation game 96

Wade Miley pitched scoreless baseball for his second consecutive start, leading the Cincinnati Reds (49-47) to a 5-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates (37-59) 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!

The victorious outing stretched Miley’s scoreless innings streak to 11, after he pitched five scoreless innings in a victory over Cleveland on Tuesday. Miley has the best won-loss percentage among sim Reds starters at .727.

The sim Reds got the scoring going early in the first inning with a two-run single by Mark Payton with the bases loaded. Curt Casali walked with the bases loaded in the third to make it 3-0, and Shogo Akiyama and Eugenio Suarez hit solo homers in the fourth and sixth innings, respectfully to give the home team a 5-0 lead.

However, things got a bit dicey in the eighth inning. Sonny Gray, making his second relief appearance, was ineffective. He allowed four hits, a walk and four runs before Raisel Iglesias got the final out in the eighth. In the ninth, Iglesias allowed two of the first three batters to reach, but retired Josh Bell and Jose Osuna without any runs scoring to preserve the one-run victory.

Akiyama and Nick Castellanos had two hits apiece to lead the sim Reds attack that was limited to only six hits, but benefitted from drawing 11 walks from Pirates pitching.

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

A-Subbed Defensively (RF) For Polanco In 6th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Feliz In 8th Inning

B-Pinch Hit For Bowman In 7th Inning
D-Subbed Defensively (CF) For Castellanos In 9th Inning

Standings following the July 12 games:

Milwaukee defeated Colorado today while St. Louis fell to Tampa Bay, breaking the virtual tie for first place in the NL Central between the teams. Cincinnati and Chicago both won to keep pace with the Brew Crew.

The 2020 schedule has the Reds and all of the sim league off for four days for the sim All-Star Game break. Akiyama will represent the Reds in that sim game. Then on Friday, the Reds travel to Wrigley Field for the first of a very important three-game series against the Cubs. Don, the Redleg Nation winning commenter/manager today, can choose any starting pitcher for Cincinnati because all will have had at least four days rest. The Friday starter for Chicago has not yet been announced by Strat-O-Matic, but we will update here when that is available.

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

Today’s winning Redleg Nation commenter/manager Don will have priority for Friday’s lineup. 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.