Baseball, Nelson Cruz | featured news

Major League Baseball, which has been investigating the link of performance-enhancing drugs to players with South Florida ties for much of the last year, may be faced with its most significant doping case since the BALCO scandal rocked the sport one decade ago. All-Stars Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees, pitcher Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals, Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers and Melky Cabrera of the Toronto Blue Jays, along with other MLB players and athletes in other sports, were strongly connected to performance-enhancing drug use in an investigative report by the Miami New Times.

Mike Napoli drove in the go-ahead run, then Nelson Cruz added a three-run homer in the 11th inning as the Rangers took a 3-1 series lead. Game 5 is scheduled for Thursday.

Nelson Cruz hit the first game-ending grand slam in postseason history, lifting the defending American League champions over the Detroit Tigers 7-3 in 11 innings Monday for a 2-0 series lead.

Slumping Nelson Cruz had two long homers among his four hits and drove in six runs as the AL West-leading Texas Rangers stretched their advantage to three games over second-place Los Angeles with an 11-7 victory over the Angels on Friday night.