ARLINGTON, Texas _ The four hits Adrian Beltre collected Monday night moved him within single digits of his 3,000th career hit, and the media aren't the only ones making a big deal out of the impending milestone.
His Texas Rangers teammates are getting pretty fired up as history draws near.
"I can't wait. I think I'm way more excited than he is," shortstop Elvis Andrus said. "He's doing a good job trying to keep everything down. He's still acting the same way, nothing different. But a lot of people have started thinking what's going to happen."
Manager Jeff Banister said that he isn't hearing a lot of chatter about 3,000, but is seeing the anticipation in the dugout with each at-bat. Players are on the railing, and they all call for the ball to be thrown to them after each hit.
Beltre entered Tuesday seven shy of 3,000.
"Nobody leaves the dugout when he's coming up," Banister said. "It's tremendous energy from all of them. I think it's fun for all of them, obviously, to get to watch their teammate chase history."
Beltre said late Monday that he hopes to end the chase before the Rangers hit the road again Aug. 3.
"I want to get it over with, obviously," he said. "But I wanted to get it down during the homestand, because the fans deserve that and I really want to do it in front of them."
