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Cruz's walk-off homer lifts Rangers over Angels

May 14, 2007 - 12:40 AM ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- It was only fitting that a home run ended Sunday's game between the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Nelson Cruz's walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth inning capped the Rangers 7-6 come-from-behind victory Sunday over the Angels.

The game-winning blast was one of eight home runs in the game, two of which were hit by Anaheim's Gary Matthews Jr.

"It's always important to help my team in a situation like that and I'm very happy I was able to do that," Cruz said. "I knew I got it good. The wind changed in the last two innings, so I knew that was going to help it out."

With one out in the last of the ninth, Cruz hit an 0-1 pitch from Scot Shields (0-2) over the wall in right-center. It is the first longball of the season for Cruz, who batted eighth and is hitting .193.

Texas reliever Greg Gagne (1-0) worked around a walk and a hit in the top of the inning to capture his first win of the season.

Ian Kinsler, Hank Blalock and Brad Wilkerson also homered for Texas, which beat Anaheim for the first time in six games this season.

"With the offensive potential that we have, we're never out of many games if we keep fighting," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "They kept fighting today. We certainly needed this for our psyche. This club has beat us five straight times, it was nice to finally get them."

The Angels jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Matthews' first home run of the game in the opening inning, but the Rangers rallied in the third to take the lead.

Kinsler's two-run homer off Angels' starter Ervin Santana in the third knotted the game and an RBI double from Mark Teixeira gave Texas a 3-2 edge.

In addition to extending his hitting streak to 11 games, Teixeira became the team's all-time leader in consecutive games played with 483. The previous leader was Alex Rodriguez. His streak is second among active players, behind Miguel Tejada (1,118) of the Baltimore Orioles.

"I'll have to wait until 2020 to reach Cal (Ripken Jr.). I'll be 40 years old," Teixeira said jokingly. "I might be (a designated hitter) by then, but Cal has nothing to worry about. He's on a whole different level. I just want to play every game for my team."

Anaheim recaptured the lead in their next at-bat, when Shea Hillenbrand and Mike Napoli hit back-to-back homers off Texas starter Mike Wood. However, Blalock's third home run of the season in the bottom of the frame tied the game at 4-4.

After Vladimir Guerrero reached on a error to start the fifth, Wood was replaced by C.J. Wilson. Matthews hit the lefthander's second pitch over the center field wall for his sixth home run of the season.

Matthews is batting .383 (31-for-81) with six homers and 19 RBI in his last 20 games.

Wilkerson kept the theme of the game going in the bottom of the sixth with a game-tying two-run homer off Santana.

Santana allowed six runs - five earned - and eight hits in six innings. He also struck out five and did not walk a batter.

Texas reliever Joaquin Benoit hit Matthews with a pitch in the seventh inning, setting the stage for some controversy in the bottom of the frame.

Angels reliever Hector Carrasco started the inning by hitting Kinsler in the head with his first pitch. Home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez promptly ejected Carrasco and did the same to Angels' manager Mike Scioscia, who left the dugout to argue the ejection.

Kinsler was not injured on the play and remained in the game.

"It was a 70-mph breaking ball in a tie game. I'm not going to hit somebody in the head in that situation," Carrasco said. "I'm still mad. What a bad call he made. When he sees the replay, he'll see he was wrong."

Guerrero had two hits in the game to continue his dominance against Texas pitching. For his career, the slugger is batting .356 (100-for-281) with 21 home runs with 51 RBI in 59 games against the Rangers.