The Brewster

Last week we were told that EwungaGoiba Ghera would be transitioning to the bullpen instead of starting against Sydney. There was apparently a change of plans and it lead to one of the best pitching duels I have seen in quite a while. Ghera went up against Sharks starter Tomislav Coslovich and neither pitcher allowed a run. Ghera pitched 8.1 innings, allowing only 1 hit with 3 walks and 10 strikeouts. Coslovich pitched 7 innings, allowing 5 hits with 1 walk and 9 strikeouts. The two bullpens combined to throw 14 innings, allowing 7 hits, walking 5, and striking out 17. The only run in the game came with 1 out in the bottom of the 15th as Sydney’s Geaney Fay, who had struck out 4 times in the game, hit a solo home run off of Pharaohs reliever Beni Ihilani to walk it off. There has been more talk of changing the rotation to just 5 starters but I will wait until it actually happens before reporting on it.

Overall, Cairo went 4-3 this week with three extra inning games. They are now 1 game behind Athens in the GBC but have pulled a little farther ahead of the rest of the league for now as they are 3.5 games ahead of London, 4 games ahead of São Paulo, and 4.5 games ahead of Jerusalem. They play Jerusalem and São Paulo this week, so it will be interesting to see what happens there.