The Texas Rangers left no doubt that they are the AL pennant winners, beating Detroit 15-5. Texas knocked out 17 hits and walked eight times, going 8 for 18 with runners in scoring position and hitting two home runs. Nelson Cruz broke a single series record with six home runs. They scored 39 runs in the six games, as they proved to be an offensive power house.
Despite all the scoring, no Rangers starter earned a win. Ron Washington went to the bullpen early and often, with great success.
Texas may be forming a dynasty here. They have a general manager in Jon Daniels who makes good deals and seems to have done a great job developing talent. Nolan Ryan runs the team well from both a business and baseball perspective. Mike Maddux took a franchise knows for hitting, and built a pitching staff that can stand on its own. The team has a rich cash stream, so they can spend when they need to plug holes. This could be the start of a very long and successful run for the Rangers.
Update: Nelson Cruz wins the ALCS MVP.
Congrats to the Ron Washington and the Rangers from a Yankees fan. At the beginning of the season it was hard to see them winning the pennant again; they lost Cliff Lee and last season seemed kinda fluky. I guess I was wrong. You can’t not like this team.
http://theresastatforthat.blogspot.com/2011/10/2011-rangers-theyre-no-fluke.html
You wrote recently about “luck” and baseball being a game of inches. I assume you did not see the 9 run inning, you should go back and watch. The Rangers got five outs due to missed calls, a check swingbthird strike on Cruz and a close force at second. Not saying it would changevthe outcome because the Rangers deserved to win, but if they had been player errors, severalnof thosevrunscwould have been unearned.
Mostly, its too bad that the closing game of what had been a great series turned into a laugher partly because of blown calls at key times.
Tom » Thanks, I did plan to watch the inning later this morning.
I didn’t see that many errors. The check swing was very close, but I’ve seen batters rung up and not rung up on that type of swing often enough to know he was in the gray area. Texas got the luck break on that one. The force at second was the fault of the pitcher for not covering first. The flow of the play took Santiago to first, but no one was there. He had to spin and throw to second, and in real time I could not tell Murphy was out. In slow motion, it looked like his toes were over the bag, not on the bag. This is another play that very tough for an umpire to get right.
Basically, the Tigers pitchers could not find the strike zone in the inning, and when the did they got hammered.