Impaled in Bucharest
The week wasn’t going too badly until the Red Crescents made the trip to BANC leaders Bucharest, they had taken a game in Manama and also clipped one off Beirut, the top two in the BURT, but they headed to Bucharest and finished the week with two heavy defeats to the Impalers. Not known this season for shipping a hatful of runs, this week saw Riyadh allow eleven runs twice and an eight run pounding as well. They did though open the week by hitting 10 runs against Manama to offer a little compensation, the net result was to drop their run differential down to -36, second highest in the UMEBA. Mind you only four of the ten UMEBA teams actually have a positive run differential currently.
Although Masaki Sato is certainly not hitting the heights that he was his first two years in the UMEBA he did show us a glimpse at the start of this week. First, he went 5 for five in our 10-6 win in Manama and then the very next day he contributed most of our runs in a loss at the People’s Palace against Beirut when one of his two hits was a Grand Slam. Diesel “All-Star” Dave had a two-homer, four RBI day in a 4-1 win over Beirut, keeping him on course for a career year in the UMEBA, but he added another nine strikeouts which lifted his projected K’s to 232. Jamie Ramirez, despite being 36-yrs-old, has played 38 out of 44 games this season, all at the hot corner, and leads the team with a .318 batting average. Only one homer mind you, but 13 runs scored, 15 RBI and four out of four successful stolen bases.
Ricardo Quadrado posted another win this week, pitching seven strong innings and allowing just one run. After his nine wins in 2047 he is now on a course to claim 18 this year, by far and away the best ever Riyadh tally. We had a blow this week when reliever Raul Correa left the first game with Beirut with what was diagnosed as forearm inflammation. In 18 outings he had a 2-1 record, a save and an ERA of 3.97. It is expected to be very late in the year before he returns to the team so we have called up Joirge Perez from Port Elizabeth. The 26-yr-old since signing a minor league contract with us had a decent 4-2 record last year with a 4.33 ERA and this year has a 1.04 ERA in five outings, striking out eight batters while not walking any. Peter Dickerson signed in the off-season after Mumbai released him has worked up to a decent 4-1 record coming out of the 'Pen with a save and an ERA of 4.43.
2048 Riyadh Results against the UMEBA (up to May 18th)
Vs BURT
| Team | HW | HL | AW | AL | RF | RA | Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baghdad | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 37 | 47 | 3-5 |
| Beirut | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 29 | 45 | 4-5 |
| Jerusalem | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 52 | 42 | 6-5 |
| Manama | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 46 | 57 | 4-7 |
| Team | HW | HL | AW | AL | RF | RA | Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athens | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Bucharest | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 19 | 0-2 |
| Cairo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Mumbai | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Tripoli | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 9 | 2-1 |