Feels a bigger loss than it is
The two losses at the end of the week to expansionist rivals Cairo really put the damper on the week and made it feel like a disastrous spell for Riyadh. In all honesty though it probably wasn’t as bad as it first appears. Our fourth straight extra-innings win at the start of the week completed the sweep of Baghdad and kept them within distance, considering the Kings have played three games more and although we did lose the series against Jerusalem, the two losses were by a single run. It was just those two losses at the end of the week that ruined what had been a reasonable week, it was losses against our fellow struggler, losses that turned a 2-2 week into a 2-4 week. Despite that we are 5-5 for May after a disastrous 6-19 April, we have to now get back on track again, restart that winning process, starting with the final game in the series against the Pharaohs.
Sean Gardner, spending his 11th year in the majors so far in the bullpen, collected his first win of 2047 in the extra-innings game against Baghdad. The win against the Hebrew Hammers saw Jimmy Cook getting the hook in the fifth innings after surrendering a 2-run homer to put Riyadh 5-4 behind. The third Red Crescent pitcher to the mound, Ricardo Quadrado, faced four batters and held on for his first win too as Riyadh turned it around in the seventh innings in front of just 12,121 fans. That was the lowest ever league attendance in the Prince’s Palace, a stadium built to hold 28,000. Raul Correa is slowly picking his form up, now that he’s taking less responsibility in the middle of the bullpen. In his last three outings he’s pitched 2.2 innings, given up just one hit and two walks while striking out five batters. Carry on like that and maybe Riyadh might feel comfortable giving him back the job they bought him for.
Our batters aren’t putting in the effort we are demanding of them on the base paths, only Torvald van Donkelaar has five stolen bases with the next best being Jamie Ramirez with just three steals. He’s 35-yrs-old for god’s sake, surely one of our younger guys can do better than that? Ramirez also led the team in walks having remained patient enough at the plate to draw 14 walks. While new First Baseman Clive Timberlake went 0-8 against Cairo, he had at least registered four hits earlier in the week which included his second homer with the Red Crescents; he had also doubled his RBI total to eight.
2047 Riyadh Results against the UMEBA
Vs BURT
| Team | HW | HL | AW | AL | RF | RA | Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baghdad | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 26 | 25 | 3-3 |
| Beirut | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 22 | 29 | 2-4 |
| Jerusalem | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 37 | 46 | 3-6 |
| Manama | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 30 | 40 | 3-5 |
| Team | HW | HL | AW | AL | RF | RA | Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athens | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Bucharest | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Cairo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 0-2 |
| Mumbai | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Tripoli | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 23 | 0-3 |
