The Rangers took the best-of-seven AL Championship Series four games to two. They will meet the winner of the National League Championship Series which goes to Game 6 tonight with the St. Louis Cardinals up three games to two over the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I couldn’t be prouder of this group of men who came together this spring with a mission to win a world championship,” said Nolan Ryan, president of the Rangers organization.
Cruz, named the ALCS Most Valuable Player, blasted a two- run homer in the seventh last night to give the Rangers a 15-4 advantage at his home park in Arlington, Texas. He has driven in 13 runs for another Major League Baseball postseason record.
“He’s going to do a lot of damage,” Elvis Andrus said of his teammate Cruz in a televised interview. “He did it last year.”
Last year, the Rangers beat the defending World Series champion New York Yankees in six games in the ALCS and then lost to the San Francisco Giants in five games.
‘Hungry’ for Win
“We were hungry to get back,” Andrus said. “Now we have another opportunity to get it all.”
The Tigers held a 2-0 lead after two innings on the first of two home runs by Miguel Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta’s solo homer.
The Rangers exploded in the third for nine runs as Michael Young drove in four on two doubles, Adrian Beltre had a one-run single, and David Murphy and Ian Kinsler each had two-run singles. The Tigers needed four pitchers to get out of the inning.
Detroit’s Austin Jackson hit a two-run homer in the fifth as the Tigers closed the gap to 9-4.
Kinsler scored on Josh Hamilton’s sacrifice fly in the fifth for the Rangers, Beltre went home on Craig Gentry’s single and Kinsler had a one-run single in the sixth. Young hit a home run ahead of Cruz’s two-run homer in the seventh.
“We’re happy to be going to the World Series but we have a lot of work to do,” Young said. “We’re happy but not satisfied.”
The Rangers set franchise postseason records with 15 runs and 17 hits.
Tonight's pitching matchup will see Detroit's Max Scherzer against Derek Holland for Texas.
First pitch is at 8pm ET.
Lineups:
DETROIT TIGERS
1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Ryan Raburn, RF
3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
4. Victor Martinez, DH
5. Delmon Young, LF
6. Jhonny Peralta, SS
7. Alex Avila, C
8. Brandon Inge, 3B
9. Ramon Santiago, 2B
SP Max Scherzer, RHP
TEXAS RANGERS
1. Ian Kinsler, 2B
2. Elvis Andrus, RF
3. Josh Hamilton, CF
4. Michael Young, 1B
5. Adrian Beltre, 3B
6. Mike Napoli, C
7. Nelson Cruz, RF
8. David Murphy, DH
9. Endy Chavez, LF
SP Derek Holland, LHP
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak wears a Detroit Tigers baseball cap at the General Motors Orion assembly plant in Michigan this weekend to promote a new trade deal between the two countries. But what is President Barack Obama thinking?
"Last year, this (the ALCS) was our big championship," pitching coach Mike Maddux said. "Now we know we have one more step to go."
One giant step.
"We've had the goal of winning the World Series since we lost Game 5 last year," pitcher C.J. Wilson said.
"We won't feel successful until we've won the World Series," declared second baseman Ian Kinsler. "We definitely still have something left to do."
There is, however, some validation in the knowledge that they will be back in the World Series for a second straight October. Without Cliff Lee in 2011, free agent-to-be Lance Berkman had predicted last winter that the Rangers would be an average team in spurning Texas' offseason offer.
It's something Texas fans might remember should Berkman and the St. Louis Cardinals get through the Milwaukee Brewers and make it here for a date with the Rangers.
Could the Rangers have used Lee? Absolutely. But as fate would have it, his hiney is glued to a deer stand somewhere in Arkansas right about now because he wanted to be part of Philadelphia's "Cy Young" rotation, figuring that was his best chance to personally stamp his return ticket to the Series.
Buzzzzzzzzz! Wrong again, Clifford, but thanks for playing.
So what are the Rangers going to do about a rotation that has produced but one quality start -- Colby Lewis in Game 3 of the ALDS -- in the entire postseason?
Here's my suggestion (and how I would wager if I were a betting man): Not a darn thing.
The way things have been working may not be pretty, but there's no second-guessing the results. Anybody really think that replacing Derek Holland or Matt Harrison with Alexi Ogando or Scott Feldman is suddenly going to turn the Texas rotation into the Baltimore Orioles of the early '70s (Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar) or the Atlanta Braves of the early '90s (Gret Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz)?
Forget it. No, the true strength of the Rangers, along with that explosive offense, is the bullpen. You don't monkey with success.
"If you'd told me before this series that our starting pitching wasn't going to do well [no Rangers starter won a game in the ALCS], I wouldn't have believed it," said Murphy, who contributed three big hits to the Rangers' offensive explosion in Game 6. "But our bullpen stepped up big time. In fact, I'd say that the guy right behind Nellie Cruz for MVP was Alexi Ogando."
So expect Wilson, Holland, Lewis and Harrison to continue to constitute the Rangers rotation.
"We have our starters," Maddux said.
For the next few days, the Rangers will savor their second straight American League championship, but they know there's something even better waiting out there They got a glimpse of it last October and it's been on their minds ever since.
Because as sweet as this tastes right now, they know that winning a World Series just has to be the greatest "first" of all.
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