Rangers drop Tigers 8-6 in extras
The Texas Rangers snapped an 11-game losing streak in Comerica Park Monday night, beating the Detroit Lions 8-6 in extra innings. The game was nearly five hours in when Nelson Cruz homered to right field in the top of the 14th, but it wasn't the first time he was the hero in the game after keeping Johnny Damon from scoring the game-winning run back in the 11th inning.
Miguel Cabrera homered twice for the Tigers but he could not break the team out of their slump, dropping their sixth game in a row. The Rangers' win (54-39) puts them five games in front of the Los Angeles Angels of Aneheim in the AL West, while the Tigers' loss (48-43) leaves them two and a half games behind the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central.
Tied at 2-2 going into the third, Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton and Cruz got an RBI each to go up three runs. Hamilton's single looked like it was bobbled, but later appeared to have torn through the webbing of Cabrera's glove.
Frustrated by the mishap, Cabrera hit a solo shot in the bottom of the third to bring the Tigers within two, and later homered again in the bottom of the fifth after Magglio Ordonez led off with a solo shot as well. Cruz later got lucky after hitting an RBI which took a bad hop, but Damon's single in the bottom of the eighth locked the game at six.
Injuries hit both teams
The game had its exciting moments with both teams recording double-digit hits, but there were some scary parts as well. First, the Tigers lost their third baseman Brandon Inge after he was hit by a pitch in the left hand, which subsequently broke it. He is expected to miss up to six weeks, and the Tigers are expected to make a roster move some time Tuesday.
The most harrowing moment in the game didn't come until the bottom of the sixth, when Texas reliever Dustin Nippert was hit in the side of the head by an Austin Jackson line drive double, which landed in left field after ricocheting off Nippert's skull. Teammates, coaches and trainers ran to his aide, but after a while Nippert was able to leave the field under his own power and was back in the hotel before the game was over after a quick stopoff at the hospital.
"We'll probably give him a couple days off, just because you want to be careful when a guy gets hit in the head, but he's OK," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "It looked a lot worse than it actually was."
Cruz saved the game
While in right field, Cruz was able to fake out the Tigers' Damon to keep him from winning the game. With a man on first and second and one out, Brennan Boesch hit a line drive that appeared to be the game-winning hit. Cruz played the ball perfectly however, and though he had no way he could have caught the ball, he acted as if he was going to, which held up Damon between second and third. By the time the ball hit the ground, the cutoff throw was on its way to the infield, stranding Damon at third base. The inning ended with the next batter, Carlos Guillen, hitting into a double play.
"Boesch hit the ball off the end of the bat, and when I looked up, it was in the lights," Damon said. "I just couldn't get a read on it. That's the one thing that you don't want to happen in a situation like that, but I made the mistake."
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