Growing old in Cairo (2041-1)

[Fat Nige]

Wrapping up the 2040 regular season

And so, Cairo entered the last two series of the 2040 regular season one game behind Manama and four games ahead of Istanbul with a series to play against both of them at the Seventh Wonder ballpark. Any outcome was still possible in the BURT, no such drama in the BANC with Jerusalem & Bucharest having already wrapped up the playoff slots there.

It was an explosive start to the month’s first game. Chariot Archer’s starter Roberto Gomez was blitzed in the top of the first surrendering five hits and five runs, he was pulled in favour of Hector Gallo. Down 5-0 already the team compounded it with two errors and Gallo gave up three more hits meaning the Pearls put seven runs on the board in total. Cairo wasn’t out of it though, in the bottom of the first they had hit three singles and a double to cut the lead to 7-3 when back to back homers from Bungay Martin & Elijah Curry drove the Hebrew Hammers starter from the game and left the score at the end of the first 7-5.

Gallo went three innings and kept the visitors from adding any more runs while the Cairo offence went on the rampage. Barney Everhart added a 2-run homer to tie up the score in the second and Curry gave Chariot Archers their first lead in the third innings with his second homer of the night. Everhart hit his second homer and Cairo’s fifth in the fourth to give the home side a 9-7 lead. Surprisingly enough that’s how the game finished, both bullpens looked up the scoring and Cairo had drawn level with Manama at the top of the Burt.

Manama put two on the board in the top of the first in the second game of the series too but there was no comeback for the Chariot Archers this time. A shed load of runs in the middle-innings saw Cairo well beaten 10-2, the final game of the series saw the Pearls once more wining on the road, this time by 6-3, this left Manama two games ahead going into the final series and almost as importantly, Istanbul had won their series with Bagdad leaving them three games out of second place. If the Bosphorus won all three games against Cairo they would edge into the post season at the Chariot Archers expense. Meanwhile Cairo had to also try to win all their three remaining games and hope that Manama lost all three of theirs against bottom placed Bagdad.

As it was the tension didn’t last long, Tony Caraballo kept the Bosphorus down to just one run in his seven innings pitched and Cairo beat Istanbul 4-1. Coupled with the Manama 5-4 win it sorted out all the BURT playoff spots, Manama had won the pennant as they had from Cairo in the inaugural 2037 season, although that year the league had only played 79 games. Cairo went on to win the final series 2 game to 1 but that was largely irrelevant, their final tally of 75-87 was two games behind Manama and notably over 20 games behind both of the post season participants from the BANC league.

The post season was set, Manama would meet Cairo in the League Championship Series, Cairo had lost the 2037 series 4-3 to the Pearls but had gone on to win the 2038 & 2039 series 4-3 both over Manama again. Would 2040 even the LCS meetings between them or would Cairo make it three straight series wins?