Adrian Beltre playing through pain is nothing new.
The guy has played with everything under the sun — sports hernia, playing with a colostomy bag (look it up) and it seems at least a couple of times a year his hamstrings flare up, and yeah, he plays with that.
When Josh Hamilton spoke about his time in Texas back in April, he credited Beltre for showing him what determination was all about. Not sure it rubbed off, but either way, you get the picture — Beltre is a gamer.
On Sunday, as the Rangers were rolling to a 6-2 win over the Angels to pick up their seventh straight victory and force a tiebreaker game with Tampa Bay on Monday to earn a Wild Card Game berth, Beltre once again saw his hamstring flare up as he was crossing home plate in the sixth inning.
Beltre said after the game that he felt the twinge in his hamstring when he attempted to steal second base on a pitch that A.J. Pierzynski blooped over second baseman Howie Kendrick's head. He scored on a Geovany Soto double and grabbed hishastring and limped across home plate and into the dugout, but he was back out there again at third base in the seventh.
Beltre gave himself a clean bill of health for Monday's tiebreaker game, so expect to see him hitting fourth and playing third base.
“It’s good enough,” he told the Star-Telegram. “I was going too fast, that’s what happened. Nothing new. Same old injury.”
We wouldn't expect anything else from Beltre, who's entrenched himself as one of the keys to the Rangers and a fan favorite for that very reason.
