Sim League Baseball’s standard schedule uses 24 teams divided into two leagues and six divisions, with four teams per division. You play each team in your division 14 times (42 total), and each of the other eight teams in your league 12 times (96 total). The other 24 games are brief two-game series with each team in the other league (one home, one away). You only get a taste of interleague play.
My interleague schedule began with P Niek! at the Disco (praised in an earlier post for that name), and we will get to see six of these teams over the next 19 games. And that will be it, unless we are fortunate enough to get to the World Series.
Mike Cuellar made his sixth start of the season and though it was actually one of his better ones, that’s not saying much. Cuellar gave up 4 runs in 8 innings, but his ERA actually dropped to 6.64. Only one of his starts has met the criteria for a quality start (3 runs or fewer in 6 innings or more), and only barely met those minimums that time. For a second-round pick, he sure isn’t doing what I need.
Meanwhile, our opponent’s namesake Phil Niekro had his famed knuckleball working and pitched into the 9th inning en route to a 5-2 win.
Our one trip to Comiskey Park followed, and Teddy Higuera put up another excellent performance with 6 shutout innings to improve to 4-2. Ryne Sandberg continued a hot stretch with 3 hits, including a pair of run-scoring triples, as we returned the favor with a 3-1 victory.
This put us at 10-12, one game back in the division. Still pretty early to know if this team is just going to be average or has a chance to make a good run, though. Our next short matchup in interleague play is against Three Rivers Blues, who sit at 11-11. They’ve given up the most runs in the league and also have one of the top offenses.
