Orioles head to first league championship since 1997
Cruz hits a two- run homer in Game 3 of a sweep over the Tigers. The Royals are next.
DETROIT — A runaway title in a division of behemoths, then an unexpected sweep against a trio of Cy Young winners.
For Nelson Cruz, Buck Showalter and this unheralded bunch from Baltimore, the question now is: What’s next?
Cruz sliced a two- run homer for his latest big postseason hit, and the Orioles held off the Detroit Tigers, 2- 1, Sunday to reach the American League Championship Series for the first time since1997.
Bud Norris outpitched David Price in Game 3 of the division series. The Tigers scored in the ninth inning and put the tying run on second with no outs, but Orioles closer Zach Britton escaped the jam to lift 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 will open the ALCS on Friday at home against Kansas City.
“We’ve got a lot to go, and we’re grinding,” outfielder Adam Jones said.
So often an afterthought in the rugged AL East, the Orioles won their first division title since 1997 this year, dispatching the secondplace New York Yankees by 12 games — and last- place Boston by more than double that margin. That put Baltimore up against another of the game’s most star- laden rosters, but Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander and the Tigers couldn’t manage a single win.
Cruz’s homer Sunday was his 16th in the postseason, including eight against the Tigers. He was the MVP of the 2011ALCS for Texas in a six- game victory over Detroit.
Cruz spent much of the 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 reallywanted to reestablish himself, and we thought that we could provide a real good opportunity for him, andthe sky might be the limit.”
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 series’ tone, and he came through again in the sixth inning against Price.
“If you tell me before the series we’re going to sweep, I don’t believe it,” Cruz said.
Detroit won its fourth straight AL Central this year. But after reaching at least the ALCS the last three seasons, Detroit couldn’t make it there this year. The Tigers remain without a World Series title since 1984 — a drought one year shorter than Baltimore’s.