Beltre hands out 3K hit gifts to teammates, staff

August 13th, 2017

ARLINGTON -- came to work on Sunday bearing gifts for his Rangers teammates and staff to commemorate his 3,000th hit.
Beltre was passing out an autographed bottle of Scotch and a replica lineup card for everybody. They will also receive a commemorative cigar with a special logo and another gift Beltre is not ready to announce.
"It's nothing big," Beltre said.
Beltre recorded his 3,000th hit with a double against the Orioles on July 30.

"It was more like a team thing, not just me," Beltre said. "I wanted to do something for my teammates for all the support and nice things they have done for me."
Beltre had three more hits on Saturday night, passing Wade Boggs and moving into 28th place all-time. He also passed Paul Waner for 13th place with 607 doubles and Lou Gehrig for 18th place with 5,062 total bases.

It seems like almost every game Beltre is passing a Hall of Famer in some category, but the 3,000 hits was the big one.
"Three thousand are great, but the way everybody was supporting me, the team wanted me to do it more than I did," Beltre said.
The Rangers are having more fun with Beltre beyond the 3,000 hits. Pitcher had T-shirts made up with Beltre's caricature on it and the message: "On-deck is where the circle is."
That pokes fun of Beltre getting ejected from the July 26 game against the Marlins by umpire Gerry Davis because he wasn't standing in the on-deck circle and then tried to move it when told to get back in it.
The Rangers are also giving away miniature "on-deck" mousepads on Sept. 9 for their game against the Yankees. Beltre will be honored the night before.
Rangers confident in Bush
Matt Bush threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings in the Rangers' 8-3 victory over the Astros on Saturday. It was the longest outing by inning in his 103 Major League appearances over the past two years. He has only five other appearances as long as two innings.
But Bush made it through the outing on just 29 pitches. The Rangers were reluctant earlier in the season to push Bush past one inning because of his shoulder issues, but they feel confident he is now strong enough to do it.

"We talked two weeks ago [about] how he felt, and he feels as good as he has all year," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "The pitch count was in his favor. He was really efficient with all his pitches."
Rangers beat
• The Rangers have released infielder Pete Kozma from Triple-A Round Rock.
• Pitcher Jake Diekman is scheduled to throw a live batting practice session on Monday. It will be his third session since resuming a throwing program. He has been sidelined all season while recovering from three abdominal surgeries.
• The Rangers have flipped and A.J. Griffin in the rotation. Perez will pitch Monday against the Tigers and Griffin will go on Tuesday. Griffin last pitched on Tuesday against the Mets and Perez went the next day.