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When this game ended, I could only stare at it in disbelief. This was not a game we were supposed to lose. It just felt like ours the whole way. I’m still a bit stunned. Was nice to see Chris Young pitch so well, though. Wasn’t nice to see Almanzar NOT pitch so well.
We’ll get over it, but man – was I bummed when this one was over. Don’t have time to write much about it, I’m not getting to do the update until almost 5PM the next day, so I don’t feel like recalling all those negative feelings right now. :)
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.

This game felt like the Rangers’ game almost from the start. Rogers shut down the M’s in the top of the first, and then we were up 3-0 after the third batter on a Mike Young 3 run home run. Kind of never looked back. We put up a five spot in the bottom of the first, and cruised. Richard Hidalgo provided the other 2 first inning RBI’s with a single up the middle. His slump is starting to be disturbing. We picked up a few more runs in the fifth inning on a Mench single, and a Nix single. Nix also added an upper tank home run in the 7th for our 8th and final run. Offensively it seemed to flow pretty well, what with 11 hits overall. Not an insane number of hits, but they were properly put together for best use. :)
Pitching wise, Kenny Rogers finally got some run support, and got his first win of the season on April 27th. CoCo came in to get an inning of work in the 9th, but gave up the two runs. That wasn’t pleasant. Shouse and Regilio were in between them, and gave up nothing in their innings. In fact, outside of CoCo, we gave up just three hits in 8 innings and no runs – an extremely well pitched game (CoCo had 3 hits and 2 runs in his one inning).
But the best moment for me of the night was the Philly Phanatic. I grew up in Philly, and like Kevin Mench, I know the greatness that is the Phanatic. I loved the top of the 5th so much with Josh & Tom that I dumped that to DVD so I could watch it later. I really enjoyed him hamming it up with Rangers Captain (who takes a bum rap from a lot of fans around these parts). I would have loved the night even if the Rangers lost 8-2 because of the Phanatic!
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.

Well, my daughter was born on Saturday April 16th (an 8-0 loss by the Rangers no less – thanks guys!), and when I stopped doing updates a few days before that, the Rangers’ stats were a winning percentage of .444, we were tied for third place one game out. I don’t do any updates for about 11 games or so, and what do I find when I come back for updates? We’ve got a winning percentage of .476, we’re tied for third and are 1.5 games out. So basically, not much has changed. Which is both good and bad. I would have liked to have made some progress there, but as we’ve kind of treaded water during this time, no one else has stepped on us to keep us down, either.
In this game, Ryan Drese, who was a very pleasant surprise in 2004 didn’t show the same kind of stuff. He was beat around a bit, giving up 11 hits in his 6.1 innings of work. He allowed 5 runs (4ER), and didn’t seem to have a good control of the game at any point. He did strike out five, but the way I saw him pitch, that was a surprise. Ron Mahay followed Drese with a pretty good 1.2 innings allowing no runs, which kept us in the game. However, Brocail came in and gave up two in the 9th which to my eyes seemed to deflate the Rangers. We had been down the whole game, but were within striking distance. Just needed one. Then we needed 3 to tie, four to win, and it didn’t seem like we had any gas in the tank after Brocail’s ninth.
Offensively, we didn’t do a whole lot. We had a total of 8 hits. Four of them were home runs (Dellucci, Teixeira, Mench, & Soriano). All of them were solo. That left just four other hits for the entire game. Even given that, we still were very close until the ninth. Just didn’t seem to be able to get much going.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.

Will have a full recap in the morning.
On second thought, no I won’t – I have to take my wife to the hospital. :)

There are a lot of jokes in the local press today about “not being a hitters Park”, or some other Park joke. I’ll resist that, although last night I have to admit I wasn’t rooting for him to do bad so he could be released. I have to wonder if he can do what Ryan Drese did last year. So far it seems to be working. And in the ninth game of the season, one of our starting pitchers got a win – and it was Chan Ho Park, of all people! Ho went 6.2 innings, giving up 3ER on 5 hits, and striking out six, including the side in the second. Most of the hits came in his last inning, when Buck adeptly pulled him before it got ugly. But before that, he was electric. I’m not ready to put myself behind him, but it was nice to see him pitch well, and it was nice to see Chan Ho fans in the stands again. If you read some of my early reports when Chan Ho first came here, I absolutely loved the atmosphere the ballpark had when he pitched well. There’d be entire sections of Korean fans, and they’d have signs, they’d have drums, they’d hoot and holler when he did something good. I really REALLY loved that atmosphere. It made me want to come to the ballpark just to check out the Park fans. I miss that. So in a way, yeah – I’d like him to do well, and bring that fun back to the Ballpark. However, my brain says it likely won’t happen. We’ll see, I guess.
Offensively, we did pretty well last night. Mike Young capitalized on a bases loaded situation with a clearing triple. Barajas, Mench, & Mike Young were all 2 for 4. Soriano was 3 for 5. We had one home run for the night, and it was by Adrian Gonzalez. And wow, was it a no doubter. Off the facade of the upper deck, as far as I can tell, and the Angels’ right fielder didn’t even make a run for it. The game felt a lot more in control than the final score of 7 to 5 would indicate.
Our bullpen tried to give it away again, but we managed to hold on. Doug Brocail gave up 2 earned runs, although I believe they scored on a Cordero pitch. Cordero did get his third save of the season after it originally wasn’t a save situation going into the 9th – he only pitched .1 of an inning.
A win is a win. I’ll take it.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.