Texas wins their second straight American League Championship with a blowout victory over Detroit

The Texas Rangers defeated the Detroit Tigers by the score of 15-5 on Saturday night. The win gave Texas it’s second straight American League Championship and sent them to the World Series. Texas will now await the winner of the National League Championship Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers. The National League will have the home field advantage. The Texas offense erupted in the third inning for nine runs and they never looked back in this game. Nelson Cruz set the record for most homeruns in any single season series in postseason history. Cruz hit six homeruns during the series to eclipse the record of five.
Derek Holland started the game for Texas and he pitched 4 2/3 innings giving up seven hits and four runs. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out five. Scott Feldman retired the only batter that he faced, Alexi Ogando got the win pitching two innings giving up one hit and striking out three and Mike Adams pitched an inning giving up two hits and one run. Neftali Feliz pitched a perfect inning to close out the game. Max Scherzer started for Detroit and pitched 2 1/3 innings giving up five hits and six runs, he walked four and struck out one. Scherzer took the loss, Max Schlereth didn’t record an out and gave up a hit and a run, Rick Porcello pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up two hits and two runs with a walk and Ryan Perry pitched 2 1/3 innings giving up two hits and one run. Brad Penny pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up seven hits and five runs. Penny walked two and struck out one and Al Alburquerque pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up a walk and two strikeouts.

Ian Kinsler had two hits and three RBI with a walk for Texas, Elvis Andrus had two hits and a walk and Josh Hamilton had a hit, RBI and a walk. Michael Young had three hits and five RBI, Adrian Beltre had two hits and an RBI and Mike Napoli had a hit and a walk. Cruz had two hits and two RBI with a walk, David Murphy had two hits, two RBI and three walks and Craig Gentry had two hits and an RBI. Cruz, Young and Beltre each had a double. Young and Cruz each had a homerun and Cruz set the new postseason record with his six homeruns during the series. Texas was 8-18 with runners in scoring position and they left 11 men on base. Andrus and Murphy each had a stolen base and Andrus was also caught stealing.

Detroit saw their big hitters come up big but it wasn’t enough on this night. Austin Jackson had two hits and two RBI, Miguel Cabrera had two hits and two RBI and Victor Martinez had three hits. Jhonny Peralta had a hit and an RBI, Brandon Inge and Ramon Santiago each had a hit. Cabrera hit two homeruns and Peralta and Jackson each had a homerun. The Tigers were 1-1 with runners in scoring position and they left three men on base. Delmon Young and Ryan Raburn each committed an error in the game.

In the first inning Cabrera hit a solo homerun to put the Tigers in front 1-0. In the second Peralta hit a solo homerun to make it 2-0 Tigers. The Rangers struck for nine runs in the third inning to take a 9-2 lead and they would not look back in this game. Young hit a two run double, Beltre hit an RBI single and Murphy hit a two run single. Kinsler hit a two run single and Young hit a two run double. Young had four RBI in the inning. In the fifth Jackson hit a two run homerun to make it a 9-4 game in favor of the Rangers. Hamilton hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth to make it 10-4. In the sixth Gentry hit an RBI single and Kinsler hit an RBI single to make it a 12-4 game. In the seventh Young hit a solo homerun and Cruz hit a two run homerun to make it 15-4. In the eighth Cabrera hit a solo homerun to make it 15-5 and complete the scoring for the game.

The Rangers won the American League Pennant for the second consecutive season. They won the series in six games just like they did last year over the Yankees. The Rangers will now await the winner of the NLCS, the Cardinals and Brewers will play Game Six on Sunday night. The World Series will begin in the home of the National League Champion, the National League has home field advantage for the World Series. Cruz besides hitting his six homeruns became the first player to drive in 13 runs in a single postseason series. The Rangers became the first AL team to repeat winning the pennant since the Yankees did it in 1998-2001. The last non Yankee team to do it was the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992-93. Ron Washington the manager said “It was very tough, but when you have a group of guys that’s committed to each other and committed to a purpose, usually good things happen. I have to give a lot of credit to our pitching staff. You have to give a lot of credit to the guys that showed up every day. I have to give a lot of credit to the organization for getting us pieces when we need it and jus trusting us with all that talent that they gave to us. More then anything else, the players deserve a heck of a lot of credit because it took a lot behind the scenes to get to this point. And more than anything else, we defended our American League Championship.” The World Series will begin on Wednesday and the middle three games of the series will be in Arlington on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Rangers are the second team in postseason history two win a best of seven playoff series without a win from their starters. The 1997 Indians also won the ALCS without a win from their starters.