Orioles soar to heights not reached in 17 years by sweeping Tigers
DETROIT — Nelson Cruz, Buck Showalter and an unheralded bunch from Baltimore swept aside Detroit’s Cy Young winners.
Cruz sliced a two-run homer for his latest big post-season hit, and the Orioles held off the Tigers 2-1 Sunday to reach the AL Championship Series for the first time since 1997.
Bud Norris out-pitched David Price in Game 3 of the AL Division Series. The Tigers scored in the ninth and put the tying run on second with no outs, but Orioles closer Zach Britton escaped the jam and lifted Showalter into his first LCS in 16 seasons as a big league manager.
“This is fun to watch. Believe me, I’m happier than you can imagine,” Showalter said. “But most of it comes from getting to see the players get what they’ve put into it.”
Baltimore opens the ALCS on Friday against Kansas City Royals at home.
“We’ve got a lot to go and we’re grinding,” outfielder Adam Jones said. “If we play as a team, we can do anything.”
Cruz’s homer was his 16th in post-season play, including eight against the Tigers. He was the MVP of the 2011 ALCS for Texas in a six-game victory over Detroit.
Cruz spent much of the past off-season without a team after serving a 50-game suspension last year for violating baseball’s drug agreement. “He knows things were self-inflicted,” Showalter said.
“He really wanted to re-establish himself, and we thought that we could provide a real good opportunity for him, and the sky might be the limit.”
Norris pitched two-hit ball for 6 1/3 innings, and Andrew Miller got five straight outs to keep the shutout going.
Victor Martinez and J.D. Martinez opened the ninth with back-to-back doubles off Britton. Bryan Holaday struck out after a failed bunt attempt, and Showalter made the unconventional decision to put the winning run on base by intentionally walking Nick Castellanos.
That meant the bottom of Detroit’s lineup would have to come through. The Tigers sent up Hernan Perez — who had five at-bats in the regular season — to pinch hit, and bounced a 96 m.p.h. fastball into a 5-4-3 double-play. It was Britton’s second save of the series.
Cruz led the majors with 40 homers this season, and the Orioles topped baseball with 211.
It was his two-run homer in the first inning of the opener that set the tone for the series, and he came through again in the sixth inning against Price. Cruz’s drive cleared the wall in right, about two feet to the left of the foul pole.
Cruz turned down a $14.1 million qualifying offer that would have kept him with Texas, but he ended up having to settle for an $8 million, one-year contract with Baltimore that included $750,000 in roster bonuses.