Orioles edge Tigers to complete series sweep

Nelson Cruz smacked a home run in the sixth inning Sunday to give Baltimore a 2-1 victory over Detroit and a sweep of their Major League Baseball playoff series.
The Orioles breezed through their American League best-of-five series to eliminate the Tigers and book a date against either the Kansas City Royals or Los Angeles Angels in their first league final since 1997.
Baltimore, which has not won the World Series since 1983, will host the opening games of the best-of-seven American League championship series on Friday and Saturday.
The visiting Orioles broke open a scoreless stalemate in the sixth after Adam Jones singled with one out.
That brought Cruz to the plate and he lofted the ball just over the right-field wall and barely inside the foul pole, tucking it 330 yards away in the shortest area of the park in which to hit a homer for a 2-0 Baltimore advantage.
It was Cruz's fourth career homer off the left-handed Detroit starting pitcher David Price, who scattered five hits and struck out six over eight innings but still took the loss.
Baltimore starter Bud Norris surrendered only two hits in six and one-third innings and Andrew Miller followed with one and two-thirds innings of hitless relief.
Southpaw Zach Britton entered for the Orioles in the ninth and surrendered back-to-back doubles to Victor Martinez and J.D. Martinez to give the Tigers their first run and a chance to equalize.
After Bryan Holaday struck out, the Orioles intentionally walked Nick Castellanos to set up a potential game-ending double play.
Detroit brought in pinch-hitter Hernan Perez, who played only eight major league games this season, and he grounded into the double play to end the game and the series.
Source: AFP