65-88 - Beltre, Rangers begin post-Banister era with 8-3 victory over Mariners

If these are indeed our final moments with Adrian Beltre, he’s decided that he’s going out with a bang.

In what had to have been an emotionally charged game for the Rangers after the afternoon announcement that manager Jeff Banister had been let go, Beltre homered for the second straight game in his first at-bat.

The three-run blast was Beltre’s 14th of the season and gave the Rangers a lead moments after Connor Sadzeck completed his inning of work at Texas’ opener and moments before Ariel Jurado would come in with the gift of some breathing room.

Beltre wasn’t finished giving his pitchers some runs to play with as he singled in two runs in the bottom of the third inning to give himself five RBIs and essentially bury the Mariners before they even had a chance.

Beltre has played in 17 games for the Rangers in September and he now has 7 HRs and has driven in 14 runs.

Player of the Game: Amid an endless spectrum of rad things about Adrian Beltre, there’s the fact that basically whenever he even looks at a baseball field he slays the hallowed numbers of some of the greatest to ever play the game.

We recently saw Beltre become the all-time hits leader among players who primarily played third base when he passed George Brett in San Diego. On Wednesday, Beltre’s 475th dinger tied him with Stan Musial and Willie Stargell for 31st all-time, and now tonight, with blast No. 476, Beltre is all alone at No. 30 all time.

Belte’s historical feats weren’t finished there as the five RBIs on the evening rocketed Beltre by Jim Thome and Reggie Jackson all the way to 23rd on the all-time list with 1,703 career RBIs.

Tank Update: Looks like the Rangers are back on their Bogar bullsh. Texas’ win coupled with a Reds loss in Miami dropped the Rangers back to potentially the 8th overall selection in next year’s draft.

Up Next: The Rangers play their final night home game of the season against these Mariners with Mike Minor set to make the start against LHP Marco Gonzales for Seattle. First pitch on Saturday evening is scheduled for 7:05 pm CT.