.Good to win three games, but losing four didn’t help
With a pretty dismal away record the Red Crescents know they have to take advantage of their homestands, especially when all seven games in the week are in Riyadh. Unfortunately, two losses at the start of that homestand and two at the end of the week wasn’t what was needed. The start of those three wins in the middle of the week saw Riyadh turn over Manama, scoring 14 runs which equalled their most ever runs scored In a single match. Coincidently the other time they scored 14 runs was just over a year and a week ago. That time the Red Crescents lost 14-15 to Jerusalem though and this week it was a 14-3 win over the Pearls. The fans are still just about hanging on with the team, it was a good week for crowd numbers which pushed the 2047 average attendance up a thousand or so to 17,500, but it’s still a couple of thousand light on the Red Crescents inaugural year. All the Class of ’47 that we haven’t released have now agreed terms and have reported to Taipei; we’d budgeted $4 million for the signing fees and managed to stick around $1.7 million back in the bank which will help with our predicted $7-10 million loss this season. We can cut another $1.5 million off the 2048 payroll as it’s very unlikely that we’ll be picking up the tab for Andresa Pires option year.
It was a short stay in the rotation for free agent signing Ghi-cheng Kum, his first start lasted four innings as he gave up eight hits, eight runs and three walks while his second was an innings shorter as he had already allowed 10 hits, seven runs and three homers. He took the loss in both starts, posted an ERA of 18.41 and headed for the bullpen. 32-yr-old Sean Gardner will get another chance to add to his 150 career starts spread over the BBA & UMEBA. Francisco Cardona will head to the IL with back stiffness and Olando Sanchez will get his first look at the UMEBA after 71 appearances out of the bullpen over the last season & a bit in Double & Triple-A which have yielded an 8-7 record with two saves.
With four of the starting line-up still hitting below .220 Riyadh still has work to do. Roy MacGugan hasn’t taken too well to the UMEBA, hitting just .205 with one homer against righties, if he can’t adjust soon then Clive Timberlake (.287 and four homers) will take his chance against righties as well as lefties.
The junior farm system is showing an appreciation of various ex-BBA farmhands picked up and the development of the Class of ’46 with Taipei (7-5), South Guam (27-27) and Santiago (35-33) all .500 or just better. Edgardo Lopez at 5-0 and 2.80 ERA must surely be heading from South Guam to Santiago soon to join Uberto Casale who has finally lost his first game of 2047, but in 10 starts spread over A & AA he has only allowed 10 runs.
2047 Riyadh Results against the UMEBA (Up to June 15th)
Vs BURT
| Team | HW | HL | AW | AL | RF | RA | Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baghdad | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 47 | 61 | 4-8 |
| Beirut | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 48 | 67 | 5-8 |
| Jerusalem | 3 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 60 | 85 | 4-11 |
| Manama | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 64 | 70 | 7-8 |
| Team | HW | HL | AW | AL | RF | RA | Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athens | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 21 | 2-1 |
| Bucharest | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 21 | 1-2 |
| Cairo | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 11 | 1-2 |
| Mumbai | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Tripoli | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 23 | 0-3 |