Carlos Beltran's miraculous hair growth inspires Rangers in win

With a little over a month to go in the regular season, the Texas Rangers have put themselves in exceptional shape to compete for a World Series title. At 77-54, the club holds an 8.5 game lead in the American League West, and midseason additions of Jonathan Lucroy and Carlos Beltran have strengthened an already solid lineup.

The benefit of bringing in a 19-year veteran like Beltran is that he can find a way to inspire his teammates even when he’s not in the lineup. That skill was on display during the club’s 2-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday.

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To any of his teammates who were currently in doubt about the Rangers’ chances, Beltran proved that the impossible is possible. Beltran showed up in the dugout in the bottom of the sixth inning and had miraculously grown hair!

Inspiring! At least, that’s we think we was going for here. As for the “hair,” well, we don’t know what’s going on. That certainly looks like it was drawn on with a marker, though we can’t count out eyeblack.

This is Carlos Beltran's usual look. (Getty Images/Joe Robbins)
This is Carlos Beltran’s usual look. (Getty Images/Joe Robbins)

Whatever it is, Beltran seems to get a chuckle out of a couple of his nearby teammates. If you look closely enough at the video, you’ll see Ian Desmond, Cole Hamels and Martin Perez all smirk at Beltran’s new look.

If it was a motivational tactic, it worked. The Rangers bullpen kept the Indians off the board over the last three innings to secure the win for Texas.

It’s not the first time the Rangers have done some strange things this season. Adrian Beltre’s antics find a way to amuse us nightly, and whatever Sam Dyson and Lucroy are doing here is worth our attention.

The Rangers are weird. The Rangers are good. We’re OK with that.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik