Victor Martinez helps Detroit Tigers overcome offensive worries in ALCS Game 3 – MLB Update
The Detroit Tigers overcame their offensive worries from the first two games to tame the Texas Rangers 5-2 in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series on Tuesday, October 11 at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan.
In Game 1 and 2, the Tigers had failed to score runs freely at Rangers Ballpark, a renowned batters’ paradise. The team went 2-for-19 with runners on scoring positions to highlight their offensive worries. However, manager Jim Leyland remained confident
that the team will bounce back when the series returns to Detroit.
Victor Martinez’s home-run in the fourth inning initiated the spree which the Tigers had been anxiously waiting for. The cleanup hitter had gone 0-for-7 in the first two games, but came out strongly when his team required him the most. His home-run not only
levelled the score at 1-1, but instilled confidence in the line-up to hammer the Rangers.
Miguel Cabrera then drove in a run for Austin Jackson in the fifth inning to give Detroit a handy one-run lead in the crunch encounter. Jhonny Peralta lashed a gigantic home-run to left-field in the sixth inning to double the lead for Detroit before Andy
Dirks scored on Jackson’s RBI single to extend the lead to three runs at the end of the sixth inning. Cabrera’s home-run in the seventh inning, 393-feet towards left-field, provided the perfect end to a dramatic onslaught by the Tigers in front of packed stands.
Cabrera had failed to make his mark in the first two games and was thus upbeat of influencing the outcome of this game. He went 2-for-4 in the game and drove in two runs to see his batting average surge to .333 in the Championship Series.
Dirks faced a lot of criticism after dropping a fly ball and then subsequently going 0-for-2 in Game 2 of the ALCS. His dropped chance allowed Nelson Cruz to hit a walk-off Grand Slam and subsequently seal the game in the 11th inning. However,
he overcame all criticism to go 1-for-3 and score a run in addition to considerable defensive improvement in the game.
Without Delmon Young and Magglio Ordonez, this was an impressive result for the otherwise depleted line-up.
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