ARLINGTON, Texas — Good evening from Rangers Ballpark. Two interesting pre-game quotes to pass along to you:
Ron Washington on what Adrian Beltre has given the Rangers: "Leadership, his leadership in the clubhouse, his leadership in the dugout during the game. Michael Young made a statement about Adrian that's true about him also. He not only shows up to the ballpark to do his job but he shows up to the ballpark to beat his opponent. And that's what Adrian Beltre brings. And he brings that out with the rest of his teammates."
Jim Leyland on what Victor Martinez has meant to the Tigers in their clubhouse: "I think the fact that he hit.330 has made him a lot better in the clubhouse. It seems to work that way. He's been absolutely tremendous and I really give him a lot of credit because I think a lot of guys at some point have an issue with DH'ing. I think that [GM] Dave Dombrowski and I think our people, they made it pretty clear that's what he would he would be doing most of the time. I think he accepted that and he's set into that role tremendously. So it's not an issue.
"Victor has been a total team guy from day one. It's really worked out well."
It's easy to look back now and say the Red Sox miss Beltre and Martinez, two high-character players who play hard, play hurt and are excellent teammates. But the Red Sox certainly appeared to have an excellent roster when they traded for Adrian Gonzalez and signed Carl Crawford last December. At that point, there was no room for Beltre or Martinez. They had already picked up David Ortiz's option and the payroll space was filled.
Baseball chemistry is a roll of the dice. Sometimes it works out perfectly and other times it turns into what the Red Sox had in September. But clearly Martinez and Beltre were missed.
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