Rangers receive seven GIBBY nominations

ARLINGTON -- The Rangers and the Angels were tied in the bottom of the ninth inning when Adrian Beltre jumped on a 2-2 fastball from reliever Michael Kohn.

Beltre drove the pitch deep over the left-field wall at the Ballpark in Arlington to give the Rangers a 2-1 walkoff victory over the Angels on July 31. While Beltre's teammates joyously mobbed him at home plate, the Angels walked back to their clubhouse in disbelief.

It was the third straight night the Rangers had beaten the Angels with a walkoff home run. Geovany Soto and Leonys Martin had delivered the decisive blows in each of the previous two games to give the Rangers a sweep of the three-game series.

Beltre's walkoff home run is one of seven categories the Rangers have been nominated for in the annual GIBBY Awards. Pitcher Yu Darvish has been nominated in two categories on his own.

Darvish is up for starting pitcher of the year after going 13-9 with a 2.83 ERA and a league-leading 277 strikeouts. He is also up for top pitching performance for his brilliant outing on April 2, when he retired 26 straight hitters against the Astros before losing his bid for a perfect game when Marwin Gonzalez singled with two outs in the ninth inning.

Joe Nathan is up for top closer and Tanner Scheppers has been nominated in the setup reliever category. Nathan had 43 saves, a 1.39 ERA and also recorded his first save in an All-Star Game. Scheppers was 6-2 with a 1.88 ERA in 76 games. Beltre, who hit .315 with 30 home runs and 92 RBI, is up for top hitter.

The final nomination goes to outfielder Craig Gentry, who is up for best defensive play. Gentry was nominated for the diving catch he made against the Cubs on April 16 at Wrigley Field. The Rangers led 4-2 with two outs in the ninth, but the Cubs had the bases loaded against Nathan. Darwin Barney hit a soft line drive into center field and Gentry raced in to make a game-ending diving catch. He took away at least a two-run single with the play.

Major League Baseball's A-listers will take home 2013 GIBBY trophies -- the ultimate honors of the industry's awards season -- based on votes by media, front-office personnel, MLB alumni, fans at MLB.com and the Society for American Baseball Research.

This year's GIBBY Awards feature nominees in 22 categories. Individual honors will go to the MLB MVP, in addition to the year's best starting pitcher, hitter, closer, setup man, rookie, breakout hitter, breakout pitcher, comeback player, defensive player, manager, executive and postseason performer.

GIBBY trophies also will be awarded for the year's top play, storyline, hitting performance, pitching performance, oddity, walk-off, Cut4 topic, regular-season moment and postseason moment, from MLB.com's Must C highlight reels.

In the past five years, fans have cast more than 50 million votes across the various GIBBY categories, none of which was restricted to individual League affiliation. Fans can vote through Sunday, December 1.

Winners will be presented their GIBBY trophies at the MLB.com Greatness in Baseball Yearly Awards extravaganza during the Winter Meetings in Orlando, Fla.