Beltre's Three Home Runs Power Rangers Past Orioles

Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre connects for his first of three home runs against the Orioles Thursday evening. (Tim Heitman)

In Wednesday evening's game, the Texas Rangers crushed the Baltimore Orioles 12-3. One of the main reasons they won so big was the performance by third baseman Adrian Beltre. In each of Beltre's first three at-bats Wednesday evening, he smoked a home run to a different parts of the park. The accomplishment is particularly notable for Adrian Beltre because he has done it before. I will simply list a few of the many notable features of his distinguished accomplishment.

• Beltre's three home runs, which all occurred during the first four innings of the game, totaled an impressive 1,187 feet (average of 396 feet per home run) in total distance.
• Beltre hit two home runs in the fourth inning. He became just the second player in Rangers history to hit two home runs in the same inning.
• This is the second time Beltre has hit three home runs in a game. The last time was Game 4 of the 2011 ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays.
• This means that Beltre joins the company of Albert Pujols, George Brett, Reggie Jackson, and Babe Ruth as the only players to have a three-homer game in both the regular season and postseason.
• In the second inning, Beltre hit his 20th home run of the season. With that milestone accomplished, he became just the ninth third baseman to hit 20 or more home runs in ten or more seasons.

You get the idea. What Adrian Beltre accomplished here is quite rare. The raw power displayed is impressive in any sense of the word. The Rangers apparently like to have their big individual hitting accomplishments against the Orioles. On May 9, outfielder Josh Hamilton hit four home runs in one game at Baltimore. Of course on Wednesday night, Beltre went off on Orioles pitching again. The Rangers are considered to have one of the most potent offenses in all of baseball. Nights like this tend to remind us exactly why that is.