Like many of our friends throughout the SB Nation network, we are simulating the 2020 MLB season with MLB The Show 20. While we are unable to stream the games as they would otherwise be happening, we will try to get ahead of the curve and post about the games on the same day they would have taken place. Or, you know, at least get them back on schedule. Now, onto the recap!
The simulated Detroit Tigers bullpen failed time and again on Saturday evening, blowing multiple leads in a 7-6 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers erased deficits of 2-1, 5-2, and 6-5 to force extra innings before scoring a run in the bottom of the 14th to escape with the victory.
Like Friday’s game, there wasn’t a lot of action early on in this one. Max Muncy put the Dodgers on the board with a solo home run in the bottom of the second, and Jeimer Candelario tied the game with a solo shot of his own in the fourth. The teams traded runs in the sixth inning — starter Matthew Boyd scored for the Tigers after being hit by a pitch — before all hell broke loose when the bullpens took over.
The Tigers took the lead in the seventh by way of a Jonathan Schoop solo home run, his 13th of the season. Then, after Gregory Soto worked a scoreless inning out of the bullpen, they padded their lead with two runs in the eighth. Candelario started the rally with a one-out walk, and came around to score on a Miguel Cabrera double. Niko Goodrum grounded out to the right side, moving Cabrera up to third, and Schoop brought Cabrera in with a hit down the left field line — scored very generously as a double, for some reason — to put the Tigers up 5-2.
That all came crashing down quickly in the bottom of the inning. Soto retired Gavin Lux for the first out, but Justin Turner took him deep for his second home run of the series, cutting Detroit’s lead to 5-3. Corey Seager reached on a seeing-eye single, and Mookie Betts hit a double off the left field wall to bring the deficit to one run. Tyler Alexander came on to face the heart of the Dodgers lineup, and retired Cody Bellinger for the second out of the frame, but Max Muncy tied the score with a single up the middle before the Tigers could retire the side.
After a scoreless ninth inning, the Tigers took the lead again in the 10th. Cabrera started things off with his second double of the game, and a Goodrum single brought home pinch runner JaCoby Jones, giving the Tigers a 6-5 advantage. But not even Joe Jimenez was able to shut the door; he surrendered a solo homer to Betts with two outs in the bottom of the 10th, tying the score at six runs apiece.
Things quieted down after that, with both sides failing to mount any sort of rally in the next three innings. The Tigers, somewhat depleted already by substitutions earlier in the game, also went quietly in the 14th before the Dodgers were able to break through against Jose Cisnero. Utility man Drew Jackson led off the inning with a double, and was nearly stranded at second, but Lux came through with a two-out single to bring home the winning run.
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