Rangers edge Tigers after two rain delays

ARLINGTON, Texas -- For the second straight series opener, Detroit's Justin Verlander had a start interrupted by rain.

Though the entire evening wasn't a wash -- as was the case in ALDS Game 1 against the Yankees -- the night in another sense was for the Tigers as they fell to the Rangers, 3-2, in ALCS Game 1 Saturday night.

Two rain delays, one 41 minutes and the other 1 hour, 9 minutes, disrupted play in the fifth inning, with the first one ending Tigers starter Verlander's night and the second finishing Rangers starter C.J. Wilson's.

It was the first rain delay in a Rangers playoff game since a 3-hour, 12-minute delay in Game 3 of the 1998 Division Series against the Yankees.

Verlander, the likely AL Cy Young Award winner, wasn't great, allowing three runs and five hits in four innings. He said of his command, "I just didn't have it. My location just wasn't very good at all.''

One of the hits off him was Nelson Cruz's solo home run in the fourth, which gave the Rangers a 3-0 lead and proved to be the difference.

But Verlander didn't get much help from his offense, mostly held in check by Wilson and five Rangers relievers.

Wilson worked out of early trouble to shut out the Tigers for the first four innings, then allowed two runs after the first rain delay in the fifth, exiting the game with a 3-2 lead. After the second rain delay, Mike Gonzales got Alex Avila to ground out with the bases loaded to end the fifth.

Gonzalez (one-third of an inning), Alexi Ogando (two innings), Darren Oliver (two-thirds of an inning), Mike Adams (one-third of an inning) and Neftali Feliz (one inning) combined to allow just an infield hit and a walk the rest of the way.

Feliz, who had 32 saves this season, allowed Ramon Santiago's bunt single to start the ninth but struck out Wilson Betemit, Austin Jackson and Ryan Raburn to record his fourth save of the postseason.

Ogando, a starter most of the season who went 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA in three starts against the Tigers this year, honored those numbers with dominant sixth and seventh innings, striking out three.

Said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, "I thought it was a great game, particularly under the conditions, a lot of excitement. I thought both bullpens did a terrific job. It turned out to be really a very, very good ballgame.''

With the Rangers leading 3-0, Wilson allowed a leadoff double to Santiago in the fifth. After the next pitch to Brandon Inge, the game was held up for 41 minutes because of rain, and when play was resumed, Wilson wasn't as sharp. He allowed an RBI double by Jackson that brought the Tigers within 3-1, and after walks to Raburn and Miguel Cabrera loaded the bases, a wild pitch made it 3-2.

Wilson held the runners at second and third on Victor Martinez's comebacker and intentionally walked Magglio Ordoñez before rain again held up the game for 69 minutes. When the game resumed, Gonzalez got Avila to ground out to strand three runners.

"It's quite frustrating,'' Verlander said of the rain delays. "I really felt like as a team, we were starting to get our rhythm there, starting to swing the bats better, and that just killed the momentum. Obviously, that was a tough situation, but that's what you have to deal with. There's no excuses. Their bullpen came in and did a fantastic job, as did ours. I just put us in a one-run hole and we weren't able to come back from it. I take the blame.''

Rick Porcello replaced Verlander to start the bottom of the fifth and Ogando began the sixth for the Rangers.

Porcello, who pitched two hitless innings, had been scheduled to start Game 4. When asked if Porcello still will start the fourth game or if Verlander might be an option on three days' rest, Leyland said, "We're going to go down and talk about it.''

Verlander said of coming back on short rest: "I'm sure I can.''

Wilson's first inning was a 20-pitch struggle, but he emerged from it without allowing a run. He struck out Jackson but Raburn and Cabrera -- who batted third with Delmon Young out of the series with an oblique strain -- followed with singles. Wilson walked Martinez to load the bases, but he got Ordoñez to ground into a 5-3 double play.

"C.J. was a closer,'' Rangers manager Ron Washington said before the game. "He had gotten used to getting in trouble and figuring out a way to get out of trouble. Now as a starter, he doesn't panic when things aren't going right. He figures out a way to get out of it.''

In the bottom of the second, the Rangers gave Wilson a 2-0 lead. Mike Napoli, coming off an ALDS in which he went 5-for-14 with four RBIs, had a leadoff single, and one out later, David Murphy launched a triple off the wall in right-center for a 1-0 lead. Verlander kept Murphy at third on Mitch Moreland's shattered-bat comebacker, but Ian Kinsler lined an RBI single to right.

After getting Martinez to hit into a double play to end the third, Wilson struck out Ordoñez, Avila and Jhonny Peralta in the fourth. In the bottom of the inning, Cruz, 1-for-15 in the ALDS, hammered Verlander's 2-and-0 pitch over the leftfield wall to make it 3-0.

"We certainly needed what he gave us tonight,'' Washington said of Cruz. "We needed that big home run off of Verlander.''