ARLINGTON, Texas — After the rain, the Texas Rangers opened the AL Championship Series by beating Justin Verlander for the second time this year.
Nelson Cruz broke a postseason slump with a home run that helped boost the Rangers to a 3-2 win over the Tigers on Saturday night as rain followed the Detroit ace and caused nearly two hours of delays.
The defending AL champion Rangers scored all their runs off Verlander before the game was interrupted twice for a total of 1 hour, 50 minutes in the top of the fifth. The final out wasn’t until 12:03 a.m. CDT.
David Murphy hit an RBI single in the second inning and scored on Ian Kinsler’s single, and Cruz’s leadoff homer in the fourth made it 3-0.
In between the delays, Austin Jackson doubled in a run and scored on a wild pitch by Rangers starter C.J. Wilson. Alexi Ogando, who got all three of the Rangers’ regular-season wins over Detroit this year, pitched two scoreless innings for the victory. Neftali Feliz, clocked at up to 101 mph, worked the ninth for his fourth save this postseason.
Game 2 is tonight. Derek Holland starts for Texas against Max Scherzer, who pitched 1 1/3 innings in relief for the Tigers in their AL division series clincher Thursday night against the New York Yankees.
Texas faced Verlander only once during the regular season, a 2-0 Rangers’ win on April 11 when Verlander lost despite pitching a six-hitter.
The likely AL Cy Young Award winner was 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA in his three previous career starts at hitter-friendly Rangers Ballpark, allowing three runs in 21 innings. Texas matched that run total in four innings when it counted most.
Mike Napoli led off the Texas second with a single, then scored when Murphy got the head of his bat on a low pitch and pulled it into the right-center gap, where the ball one-hopped the wall.
The delays were the first at Rangers Ballpark since May 24.
Young out. Tigers slugger Delmon Young is out of the series because of an oblique injury.
Key moment
Big bang theory
Rangers right fielder Nelson Cruz homered leading off the fourth, ending an 0-for-10 postseason slump, to give Texas a 3-0 lead. It was his seventh postseason homer, a Rangers record and one more than Juan Gonzalez.
Star of the game
Neftali Feliz
After allowing a leadoff bunt single to Detroit second baseman Ramon Santiago in the ninth, the Rangers’ closer struck out the next three batters — Wilson Betemit, Austin Jackson and Ryan Raburn to preserve the win.
