The Texas Rangers crushed the Detroit Tigers 15-5 Saturday to reach the World Series for the second year in a row by winning the best-of-seven American League Championship Series 4-2. Texas will meet the winner of the NLCS, which the St. Louis Cardinals lead 3-2 over the Brewers. The Rangers erupted for nine runs in the third inning to overturn a 2-0 deficit and launch a Texas-sized party at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. After Michael Young caught Brandon Inge's pop up at first base, the post-game celebrations began with players pouring out of the dugout to hug each other in the middle of the diamond. At the center of the celebrations was slugging outfielder Nelson Cruz, who launched another ‘Cruz missile' with his two-run home run in the seventh inning that gave him a playoff series record six homer and 13 runs batted in, as well as the ALCS Most Valuable Player Award. With former US President George W. Bush, a one-time owner of the Major League Baseball club, sitting in the stands next to co-owner and baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, the Rangers sent 14 batters to the plate in a thunderous third inning as four Detroit pitchers tried to stop the Texas stampede. The onslaught was keyed by a pair of two-run doubles from Michael Young, who had carried a slumping .158 series average into the game and later added a home run to his batting line. “It's very sweet,” said Young, a 15-year veteran, who last year reached the postseason for the first time and went all the way to the World Series before the Rangers lost in five games to the San Francisco Giants. At the trophy presentation on the field, Ryan said: “I couldn't be prouder of this group of men who came together this spring with a mission with one thing in mind, that this is a stepping stone to what they want to get done and that's to win a world championship.” Manager Ron Washington saluted his players. “We couldn't have done it without the commitment and the way they grind every single day,” he said. “They believed in one another and they never cared who got it done as long as it got done. And that's ‘team' right there.” “They earned it, and proved in this series that they were the team that should be representing the American League in the World Series,” said Tigers manager Jim Leyland.
