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.
Had the regular season been played as scheduled, the Toronto Blue Jays would have said goodbye to April and hello to May in the middle of a long homestand against divisional opponents. Last week would have been a tough one, with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees each hitting town for three games, and it was tough in our simulation as well, though the Blue Jays wound up splitting the six-game week.
It started with Chase Anderson being a victim of the home-run ball. Anderson has always had trouble keeping the ball in the park, but he generally hasn’t allowed that many homers with men on base, which has helped him stay in the big leagues. Not so in the opener of the Boston series, where Christian Vazquez victimized him twice – with a two-run homer and a Grand Slam. Those were the only runs the Red Sox would get in the game, but they were enough.
The Blue Jays trailed 6-3 into the bottom of the eighth when they started the inning with a Joe Panik double, followed by Cavan Biggio and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singles, the latter coming with a Rafael Devers throwing error that advanced the runners. So it was 6-4 with runners on second and third and nobody out, but Rowdy Tellez and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. struck out as Matt Barnes wriggled his way out of the jam and a scoreless ninth meant Boston took the opener 6-4.
In the next game, a Devers home run off Trent Thornton put the Blue Jays in a 1-0 hole in the first inning, but they responded with three right away off Martin Perez, thanks to a two-out RBI double by Gurriel that was followed by a Guerrero homer. It stayed that way until the fifth, when Devers tied it up with an RBI triple, but the Jays took the lead right back again as Panik’s grounder to first with the bases loaded cashed Randal Grichuk in the bottom of the fifth.
Sam Gaviglio, Anthony Bass and Rafael Dolis held that lead and handed the ball to Ken Giles for the ninth inning, where Devers played villain again.
The Sox third baseman, who drove in a record 28 runs against the Blue Jays last season, added to his big day with a game-tying, two-out solo shot off the Jays’ closer, already Giles’ third blown save of the simulation.
To extra innings we went, and Wilmer Font put up a zero in each of the 10th and 11th. With Jacob Waguespack warming up in the bullpen, Gurriel led off the bottom of the 11th with a triple. The Red Sox intentionally walked the next two hitters to set up a force at home, and with Grichuk at the plate, a passed ball by Vazquez allowed the winning run to score as the Blue Jays evened the series with a 5-4 victory.
The rubber match featured another Blue Jays bullpen collapse, but it didn’t involve Giles, since he’d pitched two days in a row.
Hyun-Jin Ryu was outstanding over eight strong innings of work, allowing just an early two-run homer to Jonathan Lucroy. Reese McGuire tied the game right away with a two-run homer of his own, and the Blue Jays went ahead with a three-run fifth that featured a Bo Bichette solo shot, a Biggio RBI double and a run-scoring single from Tellez.
Ryu came back out for the ninth inning, and Vazquez led off the frame with a line drive off the big lefty’s leg that knocked him out of the game. He won’t miss his next start.
Bass came in to face the bottom of the line-up, and gave up three straight singles to get the Red Sox back within a run. Dolis took over and got Andrew Benintendi to ground out, which put the tying and go-ahead runners at second and third with one out and Devers coming up. Nobody wanted any part of the slugger, so he was intentionally walked for J.D. Martinez, who drove in a pair with a single up the middle. When the smoke cleared, it was a five-run ninth and a 7-5 loss for the Blue Jays.
The powerhouse Yankees came to town next, and followed the Red Sox’s five-run ninth of Thursday with a five-run first on Friday.
Tanner Roark was the victim, failing to get out of the first inning for the second time in his short, simulated Blue Jays career. The righty started the game with back-to-back walks, threw a wild pitch, then (after a ground out) issued another walk to load the bases. Gleyber Torres followed with a grounder to short that Bichette booted, allowing a pair of runs to score, but Roark kept on missing the plate. He walked the next hitter to re-load the bases and after popping up Miguel Andujar, gave up the only hit he would allow – a three-run double to Mike Tauchman.
Shun Yamaguchi came in to clean up the mess, and wound up throwing 4.1 innings of two-hit shutout relief, but the hole was too big for the Blue Jays to climb out. J.A. Happ went six innings of five-hitter – two of those hits solo homers by Bichette and Gurriel – and the Yankees cruised to a series-opening 6-3 win.
There were some feelings of deja vu all over again as Matt Shoemaker struggled in the top of the first inning the next day, starting the game single-fly-out-single-walk to load the bases, and an out later he walked in a run, too, issuing the free pass to Luke Voit, which brought Tauchman to the plate with a chance to blow the game open again. But the similarities stopped there, as Shoemaker got Tauchman to fly to left to end the inning down 1-0 and then was spectacular the rest of the way.
A two-out Grand Slam by Bichette in the second inning was more than enough, as Shoemaker followed up that rough first inning by retiring 22 of the last 23 batters he faced in eight innings of the three-hitter, the only blemish a sixth-inning home run by Gary Sanchez. Giles pitched a perfect ninth for the save, so Blue Jays pitchers sat down 25 of the final 26 Yankee hitters of the ballgame.
Bichette added an RBI double in the fourth, so the shortstop drove in all of the Blue Jays’ runs in a 5-2 win that evened the series.
The rubber match looked as though it was going to be a slugfest early.
The Yankees got to Anderson for two runs in the top of the first on a Torres sac fly and a Voit RBI double, but the Blue Jays matched that and added another against Jordan Montgomery in the bottom of the inning. They loaded the bases with nobody out and Guerrero drew a walk to force in a run. Teoscar Hernandez then grounded into a double play, which scored the tying run, and Danny Jansen followed with a single to drive in the go-ahead marker.
The Jays doubled the lead in the second with three straight one-out singles by Jonathan Davis, Bichette and Biggio, and Anderson ducked and dodged Yankees baserunners through five. Gaviglio followed up with two perfect innings of relief.
With two on in the bottom of the eighth, Travis Shaw hit a line drive that Yankees left fielder Clint Frazier dove for and missed, handing the Jays some extra breathing room and allowing them to give Giles another day’s rest out in the bullpen. The 7-2 win gave the Blue Jays two series victories over the Yankees in as many tries so far in the simulation, despite their overall 15-19 record to this point.
The Blue Jays 2-1 in May after a 10-15 April (and 3-3 March), with the lowly Baltimore Orioles coming to town to finish off the nine-game homestand. After that, it’s the first west coast trip of the year.
Each game is being simulated on the day it was supposed to have been played – follow along every day on Twitter @wilnerness590 to “watch” the simulated season.
[relatedlinks]
