Adrian Beltre and Yu Darvish Named to 2014 American League All-Star Team

Arlington, Texas-The Texas Rangers today had two players selected to play for the American League in the 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which will take place on Tuesday, July 15 at Target Field in Minneapolis. The complete American and National League teams were announced by Major League Baseball.

Both Rangers were selected by vote of the league's players, managers, and coaches: third baseman Adrian Beltre and right-handed pitcher Yu Darvish.

Beltre, who finished first in the A.L. player voting among third basemen, will be making his fourth All-Star appearance. Oakland's Josh Donaldson won the fan voting and will be the A.L. starter at third base.

Beltre was selected in three consecutive years, 2010 with Boston and 2011-12 with Texas and becomes just the second Rangers third baseman to earn as many as three All-Star nods (4-Buddy Bell). Beltre is 1-for-5 in his three All-Star games with starts in 2011 for the injured Alex Rodriguez and 2012 when he finished first in fan voting. This marks the third time he has won the A.L player voting at third base (2010-11-14). Beltre is batting .333 with 11 homers and 46 RBI in 74 games in 2014. He entered the day second in the A.L. in batting average and eighth in on-base percentage (.380).

Darvish, who placed fifth in the voting among A.L. starting pitchers, has been selected to the All-Star team in each of his three major league seasons. He is just the second A.L., pitcher to ever be an All-Star in as many as his first three big league campaigns (rookie status in year one), joining Jonathan Papelbon, who was an All-Star in his first four years with Boston from 2006-09. Darvish joins Kenny Rogers (1995-2004-2005) as the only three-time Rangers All-Star pitchers.

Darvish was selected as the 34^th man in the 2012 All-Star Final Vote but did not pitch in the game at Kansas City. He was player elected in 2013 before being replaced due to injury. Darvish is 8-4, 2.63 in 16 starts with the Rangers this season and ranks among the league leaders in strikeouts (4^th, 134), ERA (5^th), and opponents' batting average (7^th, .224).

ALL-STAR NOTES: Only three other major league pitchers other than Darvish have ever been All-Stars in at least their first three seasons after not making their ML debuts until first year of that span: 7-Tom Seaver, Mets (1967-73); 3--Don Newcombe, Dodgers (1949-51); 3--Dwight Gooden, Mets (1984-86)…Papelbon made his ML debut with the Red Sox in 2005…the two All-Stars in 2014 are the Rangers' fewest since 2007, when Michael Young was the lone selection.

Quotes from Adrian Beltre and Yu Darvish on All-Star Selection:

ADRIAN BELTRE

"It's always an honor to be selected to represent the American League in the All-Star Game. It never gets old."

YU DARVISH (Interpreter Kenji Nimura)

"I'm very honored and excited to be playing in the All-Star Game. ... I'm kind of surprised. There are so many great pitchers and I haven't had very many outings that I'm satisfied with. I think people still have the image of me from last year."

Regarding his pitching in the ASG: "I won't know until the manager says something, but I'm OK to pitch."