Big break, Verlander keep Tigers alive

DETROIT -- Yankees manager Joe Girardi was mocked by some for suggesting bad luck contributed to his club's exit from the playoffs.

But there it was, front and center, Thursday night in the sixth inning of ALCS Game 5, showing the role luck can play.

That was when Miguel Cabrera's potential double-play grounder banged off the third- base bag and turned into an RBI double that opened the floodgates to a breakout inning in the Tigers' season-saving 7-5 win over the Rangers at Comerica Park.

"Sometimes you've got to be lucky," Tigers catcher Alex Avila said. "In this game, a lot of times, being lucky is better than being good. It's nice to catch a break."

"I have that bag in my office right now," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, whose team hit four home runs in the game. "And that will be in my memorabilia room at some point in my life, I can promise you."

Game 6 of the best-of-seven series, which the Rangers lead 3-2, will be played Saturday night at Rangers Ballpark.

Justin Verlander frustrated the Rangers for 71/3 innings before Nelson Cruz -- who else? -- hit a two-run homer with one out in the eighth to cut Detroit's lead to 7-4. Cruz, 6-for-18 in the series, has five homers and 11 RBIs in five games.

The reason Verlander, who allowed four runs, eight hits and three walks -- striking out eight and throwing a career-high 133 pitches -- had room for error in the eighth was the bizarre start to the bottom of the sixth with the score tied at 2.

Ryan Raburn started the inning against C.J. Wilson with a single, bringing Cabrera to the plate. He bounced a 1-and-1 cutter toward Adrian Beltre at third, and the third baseman had time to position himself behind the bag to make the play. But on the second bounce, the ball connected with the front right corner of the bag, sending it over Beltre's head and down the leftfield line. Raburn scored from first to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead.

Victor Martinez sliced a triple down the rightfield line to bring in Cabrera, making it 4-2. Delmon Young, battling an oblique injury, then hit his second home run of the game, a two-run shot to left that gave the Tigers a 6-2 lead.

It was the first natural cycle in postseason history, a total of 1,319 games.

"When the ball hit the bag, it kind of got away from us a bit," Rangers catcher Mike Napoli said.

"When the ball was hit, I said double play," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "They caught a break."

Raburn's solo homer in the seventh made it 7-2 and, as it turned out, the Tigers would need much of that cushion.

With setup man Joaquin Benoit and closer Jose Valverde unavailable because of their extensive use the first four games, Leyland went to former Yankee Phil Coke after Cruz's homer off Verlander. The lefty got out of the eighth and retired the first two he faced in the ninth before allowing a double to Josh Hamilton, an RBI single to Michael Young and a walk to Beltre.

All of Detroit was able to exhale, and look forward to Game 6, when Napoli grounded out to second to end it.

"We're tough, the Texas team is tough," Leyland said. "That's the way it's supposed to be. This is a really great series. I mean, this has been a tremendous, tremendous series in my opinion. A couple of extra-inning games where a home run looked like the score was a little lopsided. We've done a good job against an outstanding team and we're still playing. And that's pretty good."