Rangers win rain-soaked ALCS opener

ARLINGTON, Texas – A few minutes past midnight, the Texas Rangers had a victory over Justin Verlander – and the Detroit Tigers lost yet another wet playoff opener started by their ace.

“If anywhere in the country has a drought, just bring me in and I’ll fix that,” Verlander said after the Rangers beat him 3-2 Saturday night in Game 1 of the A.L. championship series opener.

Before the game was interrupted twice by rain for a total of 1 hour, 50 minutes in the top of the fifth inning, Nelson Cruz broke a postseason slump with a home run and the defending A.L. champions scored all of their runs off Verlander. His final pitch came long before the last out was made at 12:03 a.m. CDT.

“He’s throwing 100 miles an hour. You’re just up there battling against a guy like that,” David Murphy said. “We didn’t have a lot of hits against him, but our at-bats were awesome. We were having five-, six-, seven-pitch at bats. We got hits when we needed to, and the bullpen made it stand up.”

Murphy had an RBI triple and scored on Ian Kinsler’s single in the second, and Cruz had a leadoff homer in the fourth for a 3-0 lead.

Texas faced Verlander only once during the regular season, a 2-0 Rangers’ win on April 11 when Verlander lost despite pitching a six-hitter.

The likely A.L. Cy Young Award winner was 24-5 during the regular season and had been 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA in three previous career starts at hitter-friendly Rangers Ballpark, allowing three runs in 21 innings. Texas matched that run total in four innings when it counted most.

“I just didn’t have it. My location wasn’t very good at all,” Verlander said.

“He didn’t really have his curveball going for strikes,” manager Jim Leyland said. “He had a tough time with it. I think probably trying to overthrow it a little bit.”

In between the delays, Austin Jackson doubled in a run and scored on a wild pitch by Rangers starter C.J. Wilson. Alexi Ogando, who got all three of the Rangers’ regular-season wins over Detroit this year, pitched two scoreless innings for the victory. Neftali Feliz, clocked at up to 101 mph, worked the ninth for his fourth save this postseason.

Game 2 is tonight. Derek Holland starts for Texas against Max Scherzer, who pitched 1 1/3 innings in relief for the Tigers in their A.L. division series clincher Thursday night against the New York Yankees.

Verlander threw one inning and 25 pitches in the division series opener at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 30 when that game was suspended by rain. Under a rules change adopted two years ago, postseason games are suspended when called instead of being cut short or wiped out.

Verlander came back and started Game 3, winning as he threw 120 pitches with 11 strikeouts over eight innings.

He threw 82 pitches in four innings against the Rangers before the first delay.

He struck out five, including Josh Hamilton and Adrian Beltre in the first without allowing a run after his only two walks.

Leyland planned for Verlander to stay in after the first delay. That changed during the second delay, which lasted 1:09.

“That was a no brainer,” Leyland said. ‘I think that this was a little bit of a weird night, obviously.”

Cruz was in a 0-for-10 postseason slump before his drive to left for his Rangers-record seventh postseason homer, one more than two-time A.L. MVP Juan Gonzalez.

“Definitely important to get it going,” Cruz said. “As soon as I hit the homer, I thought it should be good enough, the way C.J. was throwing.”

The rain delays were the first at Rangers Ballpark since May 24. This season was played during one of the hottest and driest summers in North Texas, including 27 games when the temperature was 100 degrees or more at first pitch.

E—A.Jackson (1). LOB—Detroit 9, Texas 5. 2B—A.Jackson (1), R.Santiago (1). 3B—Dav.Murphy (1). HR—N.Cruz (1). RBIs—A.Jackson (1), Kinsler (1), N.Cruz (1), Dav.Murphy (1). CS—Kinsler (1). RLISP—Detroit 4, Texas 1. GIDP—V.Martinez, Ordonez. DP—Texas 2.

IR-S—Perry 1-0, M.Gonzalez 3-0. IBB—Ordonez. WP—C.Wilson. T—4:57 (Rain delay: 1:50). A—50,114 (49,170).