ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Texas Rangers may be mired in a six-game slide but that hasn't kept Adrian Beltre from producing at a historic pace.
Beltre, who is hitting .321 this season, is coming off a four-hit night Tuesday. His first hit was the 2,500th of his career. That made his just the sixth player since 1900 to reach that mark while playing the majority of his games at third base.
Three of the first five to reach that mark are Hall of Famers.
While it's an impressive feat, Beltre isn't thinking about what he's done in his career so far because he's still got too many games to play in what could be a Hall of Fame career.
Just don't talk to Beltre about his HOF-caliber numbers.
"When I finish playing we'll talk about that," said Beltre, who is the 86th overall player to reach 2,500 hits. "I don't think about stuff like that. When you play long enough you're going to do some stuff. I'm not a guy that looks at numbers. We'll see what happens when I retire."
While the numbers are impressive, Beltre said it's more important for him that he's been healthy enough to play in the big leagues every day throughout his career. He's on pace to play in 140 games for the 11th time in his career.
Beltre's average is fifth best in the American League and he is tied for the club lead in home runs and leads the Rangers in RBI. He's done that despite a stint on the disabled list.
He'd trade the numbers for a better season for his club though.
"We're trying to stay positive," Beltre said. "Obviously it's not been a lot of fun around here lately losing a lot of games. Our offense collectively isn't doing what we need to be doing but it happens. We're trying to stay positive and find a way to get out of it. It's been a grind the whole year but we're going to find a way to put it together."
