Okay, the winning streak is over. Seven wins in a row is a nice run. Coincidentally, the also-last-place Cincinnati Reds are now currently riding a seven-game winning streak.

Every dog must have its day, indeed.

Let’s hope Texas doesn’t repeat last year when after their remarkable ten-game winning streak in mid-May, they turned around and lost twelve of their next sixteen.

Yesterday, they simply ran into brilliant pitching. And, as the oldest and truest adage in baseball goes, good pitching beats good hitting every time. Which explains why the Rangers are eleven games under .500.

But overlooked in the Rangers streak to respectability was Adrian Beltre’s continued streak to immortality.

The hitting machine just keeps going and going. The Rangers managed only three hits in yesterday’s 2-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins. Beltre, of course, got one of them. And he picked up three in Saturday’s 9-6 win over Minnesota.

Those three hits put him over 3100 for his career. It was just last July, the same day Pudge Rodriguez was being inducted into the Hall of Fame, that Adrian Beltre picked up historic hit number 3000. Now, here he is, still hitting. Still moving up the historic mountain of Hall of Famers.

Adrian Beltre is now twenty-first on the all-time hits list with 3102. Eight more and he catches Dave Winfield and his 3110 in twentieth place. Thirteen more and he catches Alex Rodriguez and his 3115 tainted hits for nineteenth.

Over 19,000 players have worn a major league uniform. Beltre has out-hit all but twenty of them.

Oh, and one of his Saturday hits was a home run. It was career home run number 466, which puts him in thirty-fourth place all time. The next few ahead of him:

33. Chipper Jones, 468.
32. Carlos Delgado, 473.
T30. Stan Musial, Willie Stargell, 475

While his power numbers have slowed a bit, it’s more than likely Beltre will get ten more home runs this season, putting him in the top thirty on that list as well. (Which team’s uniform he’s wearing by then remains to be seen.)

The seven-game run featured some really fun baseball watching. A 5-1 road trip. A lot of youth learning on the job. A lot of spirit. A lot of hope.

And, of course, a lot of Adrian Beltre on his long, slow, pleasant drive to Cooperstown.

That alone makes Texas Rangers baseball must-watch viewing.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Joey Lucchesi (3-3, 3.86) vs. Cole Hamels (4-6, 3.41)
Game time: 7:05

How the Padres hit against Hamels.
The Rangers have never faced Lucchesi.