OOTP Season Sim Game 85: Great start from Pearson, Jays beat White Sox

With an off-day yesterday, there is a bit of sim MLB news:

• St, Louis Cardinal pitcher Jack Flaherty threw a no-hitter against the Nationals. He finished the game with 2 walks, 10 strikeouts throwing 105 pitches. The Nationals have a pretty good offense, they are 5th in the NL in Batting Average and Runs Scored, so that’s a quite an accomplishment.
• Jon Lester had a season ending injury, a ‘fractured coracoid bone’ in his shoulder. He’ll be ready to pitch next season, but he’ll be 37 by then. The Cubs owe him $25 million for 2021. Jon was 6-4 with a 3.82 ERA in 17 starts this season.
• The Cubs made a trade to fill that spot in the rotation. They sent catcher Wilson Contreas (28) (and $850,000) to Cleveland for pitcher Mike Clevinger (27). Contreas was hitting .247/.356/.400 in 56 games this season. Clevinger was 8-2 with a 4.37 ERA in 13 starts for Cleveland.
• Twins’ starter Homer Bailey also suffered a season ending injury. He is 3-1 with a save and a 5.62 ERA in 18 games, 13 starts. His injury is a torn flexor tendon.
• The Giants traded CF Steven Duggar (26) to the Rockies for RHP Ben Merey (27) and RHP Peter Lambers (23)

White Sox 0 Blue Jays 2

The Jays win their third in a row and their eighth of the last nine. They went 15-10 on the month.

We got another great start from Nate Pearson. He went 5.2 innings, allowed just 3 hits (all singles, no walks, with 13 strikeouts. He got 17 outs and 13 were strikeouts. He isn’t letting his teammates play. His ERA drops to 2.81 and his record is now 7-4.

Pearson said “I had everything working”.

And our bullpen did the job again:

• Eduardo Jimenez went 1.2, allowing 2 singles with 2 k, getting his 5th hold.
• Rafael Dolis got 2 outs and his 8th hold.
• Ken Giles allowed a single and had a strikeout, getting his 18th save.

---

We didn’t do much on offense, just 4 hits and 4 walks but it was enough

Our runs came on solo homers from Cavan Biggio (his 13th) and Travis Shaw (his 25th, second in the AL).

After a crappy start to the season, Cavan had a good June, hitting .233/.350/.581 with 9 homers, 16 walks and 3 steals.

Travis Shaw had a poor May, but a good June, hitting .266/.344/.646 with 8 home runs.

Others having a good June:

Gurriel: .363/.381/.582 with 5 homers.

Bichette: .270/.381/.551 with 5 homers.

Tellez: .254/.302/.610 with 5 homers.

Hernandez: .304/.333/.518 with 3 homers.

Vlad: .263/.339/.505 with 5 homers.

Jansen: .306/.333/.490 with 1 home run, after a very slow start to the season.

28,026 sim fans came out to watch the first place Jays. With the team 51-34, you would thing sim types would want to come to the park. The roof was closed today, even at 71 F.

We’ve built up a bit of a lead in the AL East.

Canada Day’s game two of the series with the White Sox sees Tanner Roark (1-3, 4.81, in 15 starts) going against Dylan Cease (3-3, 3.20 in 17 starts).

85 games in, let’s post the stats:

In my game, my Jays made the Playoffs in the first Wild Card spot. Won the Wild Card game in extra innings, a Vlad walk-off homer.

We won the ALDS in 4 games over Cleveland.

We won the ALCS in 7 games over Houston.

Our opponents in the World Series are the Dodgers. I’m not optimistic, but I didn’t expect to get this far.