We won the game mostly on the strength of a 5 run first inning. Although in typical fashion we tried to give it away, yet managed to hang on. :)

Kenny Rogers pitches a complete game and barely misses a shutout. Not much else to talk about here. :)

What more can you say about this one? Shutout by Scott Schoenweis, who was masterful. What’s more surprising is that we didn’t lose about 8-0 as Dave Burba pitched for us!

Didn’t get to write about this game until almost a week later, so no commentary from me.

We won a game we certainly had no business winning. Rob Bell was very mediocre – I found myself yelling out “Doug Davis wasn’t any worse than this, and he got sent down for it”. We took the lead, gave it up, took it back, let it go again, etc – you know the drill. We did manage to pull the game out in the bottom of the ninth against a pitcher I didn’t think we would score anything off of – J.C. Romero. Was nice to get a win. A really odd feeling – it’s starting to feel like we’re supposed to lose, and that’s a bad feeling as a fan – I know it well growing up in Philadelphia.
However, I wanted to write a bit about the in stadium “entertainment” a bit.. After going to games two nights in a row, I find I really really REALLY miss Chuck Morgan. The new guy is still botching many player names, has called the player at bat out of order on several occasions, and the new music selections really SUCK! Most of the music played is bad cover songs of songs that I’d wager most no one wants to hear. It made it worse hearing all the “stuff” Chuck Morgan used to do in Kansas City. Not to mention the fact that the few times the ballpark entertainment staff tries to get the crowd into a game they either come in too late, or don’t even bother – like last night starting the bottom of the ninth. Nothing. Also, as another side note – the sound is really BAD anymore in the ballpark. Used to be loud and clear, but video effects either have no sound at all, or if they do have sound, it sounds like you’re hearing it as you would standing outside the ballpark. Or worse, it sometimes changes volume in the middle of the sound effect. The ballpark entertainment crew of three that replaced Chuck Morgan definitely gets a D-.

Another sad loss. I really felt as most people did in Rangers fandom that we should have pitched Rob Bell tonight, and Chan Ho Park on Wed. But Park was run out early, and he looked it. Not effective at all, threw a ton of pitches, and gave up a grand slam in the second, which we never recovered from. We lost 11-4, and it felt like it was a wider margin than that. The only good thing really was that recent call up Juan Alvarez looked good. I suppose the most entertaining thing from a fan standpoint was the fireworks in the 5th (not real fireworks, metaphoric fireworks) when Jerry Narron & Arod got ejected. There was a safe call at second which they briefly argued over, but then the game went on. At the end of the inning, Jerry Narron ran out and REALLY was animated with the 2nd base umpire. It was quite QUITE visible. Arod came over to help out with Narron, and then (at the time it seemed) for no reason at all took off running back to the second base umpire. Arod then got really livid, and to make it more interesting, Jerry Narron had to really restrain him. Rudy Jaramillo ran out and tried to run blocker for all that. To top it all off, Carl Everett got in the middle of it trying to break it up – I found that very humorous and ironic – Everett, who is known for his flare-ups out there playing peacekeeper.
Speaking of Carl, he needs to NOT be in center field. The fact that he lumbered after two balls, one of which was turned into a triple because he was too damn slow to cut it off really irritates me. We need at least Gabe Kapler out there, or Calvin Murray. Calvin isn’t the greatest hitter, but he certainly seems most fit for the outfield. That was really shown up by the speed demons that the Twins have in the outfield. At least half a dozen good hit balls were run down by their outfielders (mostly center) – it really showed the defensive liability Everett is in center field. Problem is that we have Carl for next year too, and unless something drastic happens, I predict the same problems for next year we’re having with him this year. I’m afraid that if this all continues for much longer, there will be a big fire sale at the end of July, unfortunately.
Also, I have to conclude that the new in stadium entertainment folks who took over for forced out Chuck Morgan do NOT know how to get a crowd going. The thought of using in stadium materials to rile up the fans is almost an afterthought. And when they DO do it, the sound is usually messed up. It’s too loud, or it’s too low, or it will change volume in the middle – it’s as if a bunch of 5 year olds appear to be running the in stadium entertainment. The Rangers really screwed up when they didn’t let Chuck have what he wanted (or so the stories go). It shows – it’s most definitely NOT the same feel at the ballpark anymore. There’s another story about how they treat the ushers that work there, but that’s for another time.
Additional game notes are available here.