Rangers defeat Tigers four games to two to win the ALCS, and their second consecutive pennant.
Key stat: Rangers pitching allowed 13 homers, while they only hit seven…and they still won the series.
Top Hitters (Rangers): Nelson Cruz, Nelson Cruz, and oh yeah: Nelson Cruz. Cruz won the ALCS MVP award for his dominating performance in the series. In six games, he had six homers and drove in 13 runs. The Rangers as a whole only had seven homers in the series (the other one was by Michael Young), and only scored 13 runs, meaning that Cruz drove in a third of his teams runs in the series. Simply unbelievable. David Murphy also had a good series, hitting .412 in 17 at bats with two doubles and a triple. Everyone else on the Rangers offense just kind of puttered along, doing their thing, with no other regular having an OPS higher than .800 for the series. Without Cruz, the Rangers probably don’t win this.
Top Pitchers (Rangers): Texas’ bullpen was excellent. Scott Feldman, Neftali Feliz, Darren Oliver, Mike Gonzalez, and Yoshinori Tateyama (who was just added for the series) combined to throw 14 innings of scoreless baseball. Alexi Ogando, who was a starter during the regular season, came out of the bullpen four times in the six game series, and allowed just one run in 7 1/3 innings, striking out ten and walking just two. The starting pitching was actually really bad for Texas, with their top two starters, CJ Wilson and Derek Holland, combining to allow 15 runs in 18 innings in the ALCS.
Top Hitters (Tigers): Miguel Cabrera, one of the best hitters in the game, showed up to the big stage again and provided the Tigers with some amazing offense. His slash line was .400/.556/1.050, with three homers, four doubles, and seven RBI. Without him in their lineup, the Tigers offense would have scuffled a lot more than it did. But honestly, even with Cabrera in the lineup, the Tigers had a great offense. Victor Martinez, Brandon Inge (seriously!), and Ryan Raburn all had OPSes above .800, with Ramon Santiago nearly joining them. The Tigers actually had a higher OPS than the Rangers in this series, but scored 14 fewer runs, thanks in part to a lower OBP.
Top Pitchers (Tigers): top free agent acquisition Joaquin Benoit earned his money, throwing four scoreless innings over the series. The rest of the Tigers staff was a horror show, aside from Benoit and Doug Fister, who allowed two runs in 7 1/3 innings in his lone start of the series. Ace Justin Verlander went 1-1 after rain cut his first start short, and allowed seven runs in 11 1/3 innings. Max Scherzer, who got two starts much like Verlander, allowed nine runs in 8 1/3 innings. Closer Jose Valverde’s hot streak finally ran out, as he allowed four runs in 4 1/3 innings. The top pitchers for the Tigers who were coming up big during the regular season fizzled in this series.
The series could have had a different result it…the rain in game one didn’t help the Tigers at all, and the rainout in game two didn’t do them any favors either. If that weather pattern didn’t come into play, we could have been in a whole new situation. I’m still not sure why Jim Leyland didn’t start Doug Fister in game two after the rainout pushed it back a day. That means Fister would have been starting game six, and with the turd put out there by Max Scherzer, they could have easily been able to take the game.
You can’t blame…Miguel Cabrera. He looked every bit like one of the best five hitters in the league during these playoffs, and will hopefully start getting some of the recognition he deserves…which is funny, because he’s a high level MVP candidate every year, but it seems like he doesn’t get talked about nearly as much as some other players do.
Series MVP: obviously, it’s Cruz. The most home runs in one playoffs is eight, and Cruz has six already (all coming in this round). He’s got a chance to make history against the NL champion.
Next up…the Cardinals and Brewers will be wrapping their series up either tonight or tomorrow in Milwaukee. St Louis is one win away from adding to their NL-leading pennant total. The World Series will be starting off in the park of the NL Champion.
