Playing in the Sand (2040-7)
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 6:42 am
Regular Season review (pt.4)
So, Cairo entered the last full month of the season with a six-game lead over second placed Manama, not an unusual position given that they had won the BURT pennant the last two years. What was unusual was that they were one game below .500 at 65-66, the Chariot Archers were much more used to winning 90+ games each year.
Cairo had a disastrous month though, for the second month running they started dreadfully. They only recorded one win in their opening ten games, surprisingly it was a 4-0 success against BANC leaders Jerusalem after losing 2-16 & 1-7 the previous two days. The rest of the month wasn’t much better, they lost two series to BURT bottom side, Bagdad, who entered the month with just 50 wins as well as losing a series to the BANC cellar dwelling Beirut. Finally, they finished the month with a 7-18 record, leaving them 12 games below .500 and worse still Manama had swept past them into a one-game lead at the top of the BURT league. Even worse potentially was the looming large of Istanbul in the rear-view mirror, the Bosphorus were now just four games behind Cairo going into the final two series of the season in October. Cairo faced Manama & Istanbul in those six games so it was not impossible, given the September form that the Chariot Archers could miss the post season for the first time ever.
September was not helped by several vital players sustaining heavy injuries, just three days in Caleb Benavides suffered a partially torn labrum and would miss the rest of 2040; this was followed a week later by Santiago Rivera damaging his back and also missing at least the rest of the regular season. The final blow for the pitching staff was Jose Bruno leaving a game on September 14th complaining of a pain that was diagnosed as shoulder tendonitis, it was expected that he wouldn’t pitch again this season. With all this in the background only four of the rotation actually won a game during September, in fact only Renzo Stefanelli with his two wins out of the bullpen was the only Chariot Archer to win a second game this month. The whole staff was rattled, evidenced by the fact that five of them walked 68 batters between them led by Francisco Quintana who contributed 17 walks to that total. Cairo recruited Jorge Barron on September 10th to help the injury crisis, He had last played for San Antonio’s Rookie league side and had actually gone to the Spike Nolan (R) league All-Star game this year. He appeared in 7 games, posting a 0-1 record with two saves as he slotted into the stopper/closer role at the backend of the bullpen.
In contrast the batters remained pretty healthy, Nathan Naylor was the only casualty, straining his oblique on the 14th that would cost him a month on the IL. The hitting crew was in a slump though, Mauro Garcia’s average dropped to .174 but despite that he still managed 5 long balls. Elijah Curry matched Garcia’s five homers but unsurprisingly averages were down across the board and even the base running was limited as Cairo stole just four bases from five attempts.Miguel Gill returned from his fractured arm but only managed a single AB all month, he struckout at that.
So, Cairo entered the last full month of the season with a six-game lead over second placed Manama, not an unusual position given that they had won the BURT pennant the last two years. What was unusual was that they were one game below .500 at 65-66, the Chariot Archers were much more used to winning 90+ games each year.
Cairo had a disastrous month though, for the second month running they started dreadfully. They only recorded one win in their opening ten games, surprisingly it was a 4-0 success against BANC leaders Jerusalem after losing 2-16 & 1-7 the previous two days. The rest of the month wasn’t much better, they lost two series to BURT bottom side, Bagdad, who entered the month with just 50 wins as well as losing a series to the BANC cellar dwelling Beirut. Finally, they finished the month with a 7-18 record, leaving them 12 games below .500 and worse still Manama had swept past them into a one-game lead at the top of the BURT league. Even worse potentially was the looming large of Istanbul in the rear-view mirror, the Bosphorus were now just four games behind Cairo going into the final two series of the season in October. Cairo faced Manama & Istanbul in those six games so it was not impossible, given the September form that the Chariot Archers could miss the post season for the first time ever.
September was not helped by several vital players sustaining heavy injuries, just three days in Caleb Benavides suffered a partially torn labrum and would miss the rest of 2040; this was followed a week later by Santiago Rivera damaging his back and also missing at least the rest of the regular season. The final blow for the pitching staff was Jose Bruno leaving a game on September 14th complaining of a pain that was diagnosed as shoulder tendonitis, it was expected that he wouldn’t pitch again this season. With all this in the background only four of the rotation actually won a game during September, in fact only Renzo Stefanelli with his two wins out of the bullpen was the only Chariot Archer to win a second game this month. The whole staff was rattled, evidenced by the fact that five of them walked 68 batters between them led by Francisco Quintana who contributed 17 walks to that total. Cairo recruited Jorge Barron on September 10th to help the injury crisis, He had last played for San Antonio’s Rookie league side and had actually gone to the Spike Nolan (R) league All-Star game this year. He appeared in 7 games, posting a 0-1 record with two saves as he slotted into the stopper/closer role at the backend of the bullpen.
In contrast the batters remained pretty healthy, Nathan Naylor was the only casualty, straining his oblique on the 14th that would cost him a month on the IL. The hitting crew was in a slump though, Mauro Garcia’s average dropped to .174 but despite that he still managed 5 long balls. Elijah Curry matched Garcia’s five homers but unsurprisingly averages were down across the board and even the base running was limited as Cairo stole just four bases from five attempts.Miguel Gill returned from his fractured arm but only managed a single AB all month, he struckout at that.