[dinosauryoshi]

1st to 7th September, 2059

Results

at Athens Philosophers (12th): Win 8-5, Loss 3-10, Win 2-1
at Berlin Bears (9th): Loss 2-13, Loss 1-8, Loss 0-5

Record and position: 73-64, 7th

A good week for

Eskinder Ali, who had an absolute cracker of a game in the Hares’ 8-5 win over the Philosphers. He went 3 for 3 with 2 home runs and 2 RBIs, but unfortunately picked up a niggling hip injury, which kept him out for the rest of the week.

Jason Portman and Rob Graham, who both racked up OPS’ of over .900, Graham also hit a home run.

Yushua bin Saqr put in another good performance, going 6 innings while only giving up 1 run in a 2-1 win over Athens.

Nestor Berrios racked up another 2 saves as a closer, as he threw two shutout innings across two games.

A bad week for

Abdul-Karim bin Jameel, who continued to be mediocre at the plate, and sloppy on defence at first base.

Sergio Rutz had an uncharacteristically bad week, going 3 for 24 at the plate, though thankfully one of those hits was a home run.

The rest of the starters except bin Saqr all had an ERA of above 6 for the week (all but Marinello had one above 10), with Motoyanagi, Herzog and Saville all getting pulled early in games due to awful starts.

Thoughts

It feels like we’re very much limping across the finish line, though we only need 9 wins to at least get a winning record, and 10 to equal last season’s 83 wins. With 24 games left that seems manageable, even on our current bad run.

Eskinder Ali lit up the place on his return, and I’m reassured his current niggle should be out the way in time for him to play next week. I think any hope of reaching the playoffs has gone - and so fans are all left holding their breath hoping Ali signs an extension. We know he loves it here, but does he love it enough?

It feels like our recent bad run has largely been due to the drop in our pitching, which had been one of the best in the European Division earlier in the season.