With sports on pause as the world tries to slow the spread of COVID-19, there are still ways to fill the void created by the lack of games. In order to provide a distraction from the much more serious things going on in the world, Sportsnet’s Blue Jays radio broadcaster Mike Wilner will be simulating each scheduled Blue Jays game in what was supposed to have been the 2020 season and providing weekly updates in this space. You can follow the games as they happen on Twitter @Wilnerness590. The simulation is being done using Dynasty League Baseball, a cards-and-dice tabletop (and online) simulation game.
What was supposed to be the second full week of the Blue Jays’ 2020 season didn’t turn out to be a great one for the simulated crew.
Fresh off a series win in The Bronx, the team headed south to Philadelphia for a pair of inter-league games with the Phillies. Hyun-Jin Ryu got the start in the opener, with two solid-but-unspectacular starts (13 IP, 5 ER — 3.46 ERA) in his SimJays career to that point.
Facing Phils’ ace Aaron Nola, it was a pitchers’ duel from the get-go, and the game went to the bottom of the fifth inning still looking for a first hit for either team, never mind a run.
Ryu was the first to blink, as Jay Bruce took him deep with one out in the bottom of the fifth, but the Blue Jays tied it up right away. Bo Bichette ended Nola’s no-hit bid with a leadoff double in the sixth, and two outs later, he was tripled home by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
The tie didn’t last long, though, as J.T. Realmuto doubled to lead off the bottom of the sixth and was immediately tripled home by Bryce Harper. It was the first of Harper’s two triples on the night, both of which came as a result of Derek Fisher’s limited (D rating) range in right field and poor throwing arm (+2 to any base runner’s speed).
The Blue Jays threatened in the eighth, loading the bases with two out for Teoscar Hernandez, but Hector Neris struck him out.
Philly took the opener 2-1, and the Blue Jays continued to struggle to find the bats with Ryu on the mound.
The finale in Philadelphia started out as another great pitchers’ duel, this one between off-season free agent acquisitions Tanner Roark and Zack Wheeler, and it ended up a heartbreaker.
Roark, who came into the game with a 42.43 ERA, having not made it into the third inning in either of his previous starts, threw six innings of three-hit shutout with a walk and seven strikeouts. But the Blue Jays had only managed one run for him.
In the top of the seventh, National League rules reared their ugly head as Roark was due to hit with runners on second and third and one out. He was pitching brilliantly, but didn’t have much left in the tank and there was a huge opportunity to add to a slim lead, so Travis Shaw came out to pinch-hit and drew a walk to load the bases. That was it for Wheeler. Blake Parker got the call to face the top of the order and it didn’t go well. Bichette doubled to score a pair and Cavan Biggio followed with a three-run bomb to give the Blue Jays a 6-0 lead.
Cue the heartbreak. With the big lead, Jacob Waguespack came in from the bullpen. He left four batters later with the lead having been cut in half thanks to home runs by Rhys Hoskins and Bruce around a Realmuto single. Sam Gaviglio got out of the inning and handed things to Anthony Bass for the eighth.
Bass had been terrific as Ken Giles’ set-up man, having thrown 5 1/3 shutout innings and allowing just one hit. But he walked Scott Kingery to start the inning and Harper followed with an RBI double. A single by Segura put runners on the corners for Hoskins, who hit his second home run in as many innings. The 6-0 lead was gone, the Phillies were up 7-6. Their closer, Seranthony Dominquez, worked a perfect top of the ninth to secure the mini-sweep.
After a much-needed day off, the Jays came home to open up a four-game set against Kansas City with Matt Shoemaker on the hill for the opener. He’d been brilliant in two starts, going seven innings in each and allowing just one earned run total, and he was terrific again, though the Royals got to him for a couple in the fifth, erasing a 1-0 Jays lead. But the home side got it right back as Vladdy Jr. belted his first homer of the season in the sixth, a two-run shot.
Still 2-1 Blue Jays going to the eighth, Anthony Bass got the ball again, because after you get knocked off the horse, you get right back up on it. Unfortunately, the horse bucked again, as Bass gave up a leadoff homer to Hunter Dozier to tie the game. It stayed tied for a while, as after Bass left, Gaviglio, Giles and Wilmer Font combined to retire 16 K.C. hitters in a row, until the Jays finally walked it off in the bottom of the 13th when Rowdy Tellez singled home a Jonathan Davis double for a 4-3 win.
Plenty of scoring early in the second game of four, as the Royals got to Chase Anderson right away with a two-out rally in the first that featured an RBI double by Dozier and a run-scoring single by ex-Jays farmhand Ryan McBroom. But the Jays got one back in the bottom of the inning when Gurriel doubled home a Biggio triple, and they tied it up in the second on Danny Jansen’s RBI double.
The Royals took the lead for good, though, on an Alex Gordon sac fly in the third, and they added three more in the fourth when Shun Yamaguchi came in to get Anderson out of a jam, but gave up a two-run triple to Adalberto Mondesi (Raul’s kid) and wild-pitched him home.
The Blue Jays’ next chance to score didn’t come until the ninth when, with men on first and second and a run already in, Biggio belted one to deep right field that died at the warning track. The Royals held on for a 6-4 win to tie the series.
Next up, a pitchers’ duel that the Blue Jays finally wound up on the right side of. Travis Shaw led off the second inning with a solo shot against former Jays Rule 5er Glenn Sparkman, and that was all they would need. Trent Thornton dealt 7 2/3 innings of six-hit shutout, with 11 strikeouts, and this time Gaviglio was called on in the eighth to escape a two-on, two-out jam, not Bass. Gaviglio popped up Dozier, the Blue Jays added a pair in the bottom of the inning, and Giles slammed the door for his fourth save.
The Blue Jays had their first shutout win of the simulated season, and a chance to take the series and get back to .500 on the year in the finale.
The final game of the week saw Ryu get the ball again, and saw his team fail to score for him again. The Blue Jays loaded the bases with two out in the first off Brad Keller, but Hernandez popped up. They had two on and two out in the second when Biggio singled. Joe Panik got the wave home and was thrown out by Bubba Starling. The Jays wouldn’t have a runner touch third base again.
Ryu was brilliant, taking a one-hit shutout into the sixth, when he bent ever-so-slightly, allowing singles to Starling and Whit Merrifield. After he struck out Mondesi, Jorge Soler came up and singled up the middle, scoring Starling for what would wind up being the game’s only run.
Ryu went eight innings of five-hitter, and Bass finished up with a shutout ninth of redemption in a 1-0 loss to leave the Blue Jays at 7-9 in the simulation so far. In four starts, Ryu has allowed seven earned runs on 19 hits (and seven walks) in 27 innings. That’s an ERA of 2.33 and a 0.963 WHIP. He’s 1-3 because his team has scored a total of five runs in those four starts.
This week: Home to Josh Donaldson and the Twins for three, then south to Tampa Bay for three against the Rays! Follow along every day there’s a game @Wilnerness590 on Twitter!
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