Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Texas 3, Detroit 2
When: 8:05 PM ET, Saturday, October 8, 2011
Where: Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington, Texas
Temperature: 74°
Umpires: Home - Tim Welke, 1B - Larry Vanover, 2B - Jim Wolf, 3B - Fieldin Culbreth, LF - Jeff Nelson, RF - Tom Hallion
Attendance: 50114

Nelson Cruz homered and four relievers combined for 4 1/3 shutout innings as the host Texas Rangers beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2 in Saturday’s opening game of the American League Championship Series.

Alexei Ogando (1-0) tossed two scoreless innings for the win while Neftali Feliz struck out the final three hitters with the tying run on first for his fourth save of the postseason for Texas. The contest included two rain delays totaling 110 minutes and didn't wrap up until just after 1 am ET.

Game 2 is Sunday in Arlington, Texas.

Both rain delays occurred in the fifth inning. The first delay was 41 minutes and play resumed for 13 minutes – with the Tigers scoring twice and loading the bases loaded with two out – before again being halted for 69 minutes.

Cruz led off the fourth with his seventh career postseason homer, passing Juan Gonzalez’s franchise record, to give Texas a 3-0 lead against Detroit ace Justin Verlander (0-1).

Detroit’s Austin Jackson had a run-scoring double after the first rain delay and later scored on a wild pitch by C.J. Wilson as the Tigers pulled within 3-2. Michael Gonzalez replaced Wilson after the second break and retired Alex Avila on a grounder to get out of the jam.

Darren Oliver followed Ogando with two-thirds of an inning and Mike Adams recorded the final out of the eighth.

The Rangers tallied twice in the second inning when David Murphy hit a run-scoring triple to right-center field and later scored on Ian Kinsler’s single.

Verlander gave up three runs and five hits in four innings. Wilson gave up two runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Detroit   Texas
Justin Verlander Player C.J. Wilson
Loss W/L No Decision
4.0 IP 4.2
5 Strikeouts 6
5 Hits 6
6.75 ERA 3.86
Hitting
Detroit   Texas
Ramon Santiago Player Nelson Cruz
3 Hits 1
0 RBI 1
0 HR 1
4 TB 4
.750 Avg .333
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Detroit 7 0 9 .219 19 14 1 6 0 1
Texas 6 1 11 .200 9 7 3 2 0 0