Growing old in Cairo (2041-2)

[Fat Nige]

Cairo lose in third straight post season

Taking on Manama in the League Championship Series Cairo still had five first team regulars on the IL but they plunged straight in and came away with two wins in Manama. A three-run fourth innings was the catalyst to a 5-1 win and Jorge Barron, still replacing Caleb Benavides got his first ever pro save. In Game 2 Barron picked up the win as the teams went into the ninth tied at 4-4. A double, two walks & two singles saw Cairo turn that into a 7-4 lead and Barron finished it off with a clean bottom half of the innings. Going back to Cairo up 2-0 gave them hope of their third straight United Cup finals especially when going into the eighth inning the Chariot Archers were seemingly cruising at 6-2 up. The Pearls though showed why they had won the pennant by toughing Hector Gallo and Barron for five runs leaving Cairo going into the bottom of the ninth 7-6 behind. Barney Everhart, with his nine years of BBA experience, came through in the clutch and delivered a 2-run homer to walk-off an 8-7 win and leave the Chariot Archers going into Game 4 looking for a sweep to revenge the loss of the pennant to the Pearls.

In didn’t start too well for Cairo with Manana putting three on the board in the top of the third and then the home side suffered a blow as the oft-injured third baseman Felix Arrojo left in the sixth injured again. Everhart went to work again and a 3-run homer from him helped Cairo to a 4-3 lead at the end of six. It wasn’t enough as Manama rallied to take the game to extras before winning it in 10. The rally continued in Game 5 when despite Cairo scoring two in the bottom of the eighth to lead 4-3, Manama came right back and Zhi-jun Mao blew it in the ninth to give the Pearls a 4-6 win. With Manama bouncing now Game 6 back in Manama became vital. Tied at four after four, Cairo snapped the tie in the top of the fifth with a Mauro Garcia 2-run homer. Manama went into the ninth clinging to hope down 4-5 but two runs by Cairo finished them and the series off.

Cairo win the LCS 4-2


With Arrojo out for the United Cup series Cairo took a gamble and called up 26-year-old Felix Torres from Nairobi to fill the Hot Corner ahead of regular backup Rio North; Torres had signed for the franchise in mid-April and spent the year in Triple-A. They went into the series too with a three-man rotation Tony Caraballo, Santiago Rivera and Roberto Gomez. Cababallo had a 10-7 regular season record from 32 starts, Gomez an 11-12 record from 32 starts while Rivera had a 3-2 record, but only ONE start from 56 outings.

The Board of UMEBA’s unusual insistence that at least the first four games of the United Cup Series be played in Jerusalem seems to have paid dividends in Game 1 when the Hebrew Hammers ran out 8-1 winners. A big factor here was Gallo surrendering a seventh inning Grand Slam which turned an already difficult 1-4 scoreline into an impossible 1-8 score. Cairo came straight back at the homesters in Game 2 though., outhitting Jerusalem 13-5, they scored two runs in both the eighth & ninth innings to turn a 2-2 tie into a 6-3 win. Torres helped, going 3-4 on the night with a 2-run single in the top of the eighth, breaking that tie.

Cairo again outhit Jerusalem, 11-8 this time, in Game 3 but couldn’t make it count. Entering the seventh inning tied at five, the home side got the all-important winning run to secure a 6-5 win and a 2-1 series lead. A steady diet of runs in Game 4 left a 4-4 tie at the end of nine innings and the game went to extras for the second time in Cairo’s 2040 playoff run. A 2-run homer by Bungay Martin in the top of the 11th was backed up by Bjorn de Rooij, the UMEBA’s #92 prospect, coming on in the bottom half of the innings. As well as not allowing his inherited runner to score he stopped all four of the batters he faced and Cairo had tied the series at two.

After a petition of the UMEBA board they finally relented and allowed Cairo to play the potential last three games of the United Cup series in their Seventh Wonder ballpark. It didn’t help the team though in Game 5, Jerusalem came out like a rocket and by the middle of the fifth innings were 10-0 in the lead. Five hits in the bottom of the innings allowed the Chariot Archers to put four runs on the board, and if they hadn’t left the bases loaded as well maybe the result might have been different. As it was though Jerusalem kept up the pace and as Cairo came out to bat in the bottom of the ninth they were 13-6 adrift. Elijh Curry hit a 3-run homer to get the home fans on their feet and Felix Torres hit a solo homer, his first ever at UMEBA level, but there was to be no more. Cairo lost 10-13 and went into Game 7 facing elimination. Game 7 was scoreless going into the bottom of the sixth but doubles then from Mauro Garcia and Aubrey Anderson plated four runs for the Chariot Archers. A Torres walk in the bottom of the eighth help tack on another run and a 5-0 win meant the series would run the distance.

And run the distance it did. Jerusalem blazed a 3-run home in the top of the first, Cairo scratched out two ‘small-ball’ runs in the bottom half. The Hebrew hammers get another home in the top of the second while two hits got two home in the bottom half and tied the game at four. The game cracked open in the third when Tony Caraballo, not having the best post season, gave up four hits and a further error allowed Jerusalem to score four and take a commanding 8-4 lead; it was going to be a long way back from there. Cairo started making inroads straight away and a 2-run homer in the bottom of the third by Felipe Sanchez made it 6-8. Jerusalem held the game in check though and the next four Cairo innings saw them register just a total of one hit. Bottom of the eighth three hits by the Chariot Archers brought home only one run.

The tension was there for all to see as Cairo entered the bottom of the ninth down a single run at 8-7. Mauro Garcia got a single to first with one out, a balk took him to second and Anderson’s ground out got him to third. 90 feet away from being the tying run with two out. Barney Everhart strode to the plate . . . and meekly hit a pop-fly to left to end the game and the series. Cairo had gone the distance but once more ended up with a losers medal.

[HoosierVic]

Nice write-up, Nigel! What a season for Cairo.

[Fat Nige]

Thanks Vic