Texas Ranger Announcers Are Horrible !

The Red Sox took the first three games of the four game set over the weekend against the Texas Rangers and look for the sweep Monday morning as the play the Patriots Day Game. On Friday night, Big Papi broke out of his silence and hit a grand slam to help us to a 11-3 win. Pedroia (Minny Manny) hit his first home run of the season as well and DiceK took advantage of the offensive onslought and got his third win of the season. Dice worked behind the count a lot during the game and his pitch count was over 100 by the 6th inning. He lasted just 5.1 innings and gave up 3 runs. Even up by 8 in the 9th, I was worried when Timlin came in, but he shut down the Rangers to close out the win.

Saturdays game we had to come from behind to win scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th to win 5-3. Pedroia got it started with a double off the monster, Papi scored him on a single through the shifted defense and then Manny hit a monster shot over the left field wall to put us on top. Papelbon came in and closed out the game to get his 6th save. I thought Lester pitched well although he struggled early, he kept us in the game and only allowed 3 runs in 6.1 innings.

Sundays game seemed like a replay of Saturday's game except this time we were down 5-0 in the 7th. We scored two runs in the seventh, then erupted for four more in the bottom of the 8th to take the lead. Papi, who usually lets his bat do his talking, this time relied on his legs. In the bottom of the 8th, he legged out an infield single on a ground ball to the second baseman who was playing in the shift. Then, Pedroia came up and hit one almost into the triangle in center and big David Ortiz rumbled and stumbled around the basepath and scored all the way from first to tie the score. We then loaded the bases and Sean Casey walked in the winning run when the Ranger pitcher ran out of strikes and could no longer find the strike zone. We played without Manny for most of the game as he was ejected in the second inning for arguing balls and strikes. In the early innings, we were leaving men on base and had plenty of opportunities to score but always came up short. Eventually though, we broke through and finally began to score some runs.


Manny gets ejected in the 2nd inning.

Sundays game was the most frustrating game to watch mostly because of the absolute horrible announcers the Rangers have. The Ranger announcers have just jumped to second place in the worst announcer category for me. Michael Kay (Yankees) is still number one and always will be, number two used to be the White Sox announcers, but as of Sundays game, the Ranger announcers have taken over second. Oh, and the Fox guys are horrible too and I hate that we have to listen to them for the playoff games.

Here are some examples of the Ranger announcers being frustrating to listen to. On Saturdays game, when they were going to a commercial break after the 8th inning, the inning that we scored 3 runs to take the lead, the camera showed a Red Sox fan standing and cheering on our team. The announcer said, "Look at this Red Sox fan, he needs to sit down before he falls down." I couldn't believe I heard that and had to rewind it to hear it again. Even my wife shook her head in disgust at the Ranger announcers. But I guess, we have to understand where the Ranger announcers come from. In Texas, most of the fans still at the ballpark in Arlington after the 6th inning are the visiting teams fans anyway and the only Ranger fans still at the stadium after the 6th inning are probably too drunk to stand up. So I give them that. They were surprised to see so many home team fans still at the game after the 6th inning.

On Sunday's game they got even worse. After Manny was ejected, they were commenting on how that could change the game on how they pitch to Big Papi. They said, "We don't have to worry about the Big Papi without the Big Pop Off batting after him." They said several times that our batters continually whine and complain after every pitch and that is why we are able to work the count and get so many walks and eventually good pitches to hit. My anger started to boil as we were leaving so many men on base and I really wanted us to beat them - it almost felt like a Yankee game. They were actually rooting on the air for a ground ball so we could hit into a double play, we hit into the double play and they would say, "The Red Sox hitters can't complain to the umps on that one."

Then, before the bottom of the 8th, we all know Fenway does the Sweet Caroline song. The announcers actually said, "These fans don't even know their team is losing. They turn into Neil Diamond lyric lovers." Hey Ranger announcer boy, we were singing and dancing and being happy because your relief pitchers were coming in and we knew it was batting practice time. I actually had to turn the volume off after that and my son would do the play by play for me and would root for a base hit. After we took the lead, on a bases loaded walk (and no, we had nothing to complain about to the umps on that pitch), I had to turn the volume back on to see what the poor Ranger announcers were talking about now. As expected, they were silent. If only they would stay that way.

OK - lets win the Monday morning game and finish off this four game sweep and send the Rangers out of Boston in last place where they belong.