Cruz has carried Rangers a long way in ALCS

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Jim Leyland didn't snap at the reporter, instead using the occasion to brainstorm.

He had been asked if his team might reevaluate how it was pitching to the Rangers' Nelson Cruz. "I think that would be a good idea," the Tigers' manager said Friday on a conference call. "If anybody on this call has any suggestions, I'll be willing to take it."

After five ALCS games, Cruz unquestionably was the offensive MVP, slugging five home runs and driving in 11 runs from the seventh spot in the Rangers' batting order. That includes two 11th-inning blasts: a walk-off grand slam in Game 2 and a three-run shot in Game 4.

But Rangers manager Ron Washington, who had Cruz batting seventh in Saturday night's Game 6, said moving up the rightfielder in the order wasn't a consideration. "He's doing well right there," he said.

Said Leyland, "We have not done a very good job of pitching him," though he was quick to credit the 31-year-old Cruz.

"We've had him actually set up for some situations where we thought we could make the right pitch and get him out, but we really haven't done that,'' he said. "To his credit, he's up there to hit the ball out of the ballpark."

Cruz's most impressive homer of the series may very well have been the one in Game 5, a 7-5 Rangers loss. He turned on Justin Verlander's 100-mph fastball and smacked a two-run shot off the leftfield foul pole. The blast even had Verlander cracking a smile in admiration.

"Really, I outthunk myself," he said. "I thought I made him look pretty foolish on a couple of curveballs earlier in the game. Here I am 0-2, he might be sitting on another one. So I'm playing that guessing game with him. That's not the way you should pitch. Tried to sneak one by him and he was ready for it."

But Cruz didn't have much to smile about during the ALDS against the Rays. The Rangers won in four games, but more despite Cruz than because of him.

Cruz, who hit .263 with 29 homers and 87 RBIs in 124 games during the season and spent two stints on the disabled list, went 1-for-15 against the Rays. He woke up in a big way in ALCS Game 1, taking Verlander deep in the fourth inning, and hasn't slowed down since.

"He's an incredible hitter," the Rangers' Ian Kinsler said.

Added teammate Michael Young: "This game is all about confidence and mental toughness, and Nellie has a lot of both."

Cruz simply said, "It's not easy," a perfect synopsis of his season and a large part of his career.

Cruz was on the DL from May 4-22 with a strained right quadriceps and Aug. 29-Sept. 12 with a left hamstring strain. He hit .190 with one homer and three RBIs the rest of the regular season after returning, and the subpar performance continued through the ALDS.

Cruz has been traded three times -- including once by the Mets, who signed him as an amateur free agent in 1998 -- and was sent to the minors, after clearing waivers, by the Rangers in April 2008.

"That period of time in Nelson's life, he hadn't arrived yet," Washington said. "You know, we all got to experience things before we finally make our way to where we want to be. That certainly probably has done a great deal for Nelson to experience that and realize once he got here that he certainly had to figure out how to make the adjustments. And he's done that. The last three years, he's done that.

"What we're seeing out of him, yes, it's amazing with him hitting the ball out of the ballpark the way he's doing it. But it certainly isn't anything we haven't seen before. We're just very happy that it's happening at this time. But Nelson has come a long ways. He worked hard at it."