Nelson Cruz will be remembered for a lot around here when he's no longer wearing a Rangers uniform, which will likely be next season.
There's the 2011 ALCS when he mashed six homers and drove in 13 runs in a six-game victory, and several other such stretches on smaller stages when he carried the offense for a stretch of time.
There's, of course, the outfield flubs, most notably the one in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series that eventually led to a Cardinals' comeback to force Game 7, which Texas lost.
On Monday night, Cruz had one of his games at the plate, one of those nights when he gets the rest of the team and tells them to just hop on his broad shoulders. It was his first multi-homer game in a year as he mashed two bombs — one to respond to a six-run Oakland inning and the other to give his team back the lead in the fifth inning. He also had an RBI double to finish the night with four RBIs, or half of his team's runs on a night when the Rangers scored as many runs as they had in the previous week against the first-place Oakland A's to snap a six-game losing skid.
The win spoke volumes for the Rangers in the face of some massive adversity, and if Cruz can go on one of his tears for about a week it would do a ton for the Rangers' lineup, confidence and divisional hopes if he can help them to a series victory against Oakland, which Texas currently trails by two games.
