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Three Up, Three Down: Adrian Beltre is a national treasure
Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre was ejected for moving the on-deck circle to his place of choosing. Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports

Three Up, Three Down: Adrian Beltre is a national treasure

Welcome to this week's edition of Three Up, Three Down — your weekly catch-up of the three best highlights (and lowlights) from around the league. We're here for all of the cheers and the jeers, because it's baseball. You can't have a winner without someone losing along the way.

Up: Adrian Beltre is a national treasure and should be treated as such

Adrian Beltre is going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame soon after he retires, and when the bittersweet moment of retirement comes, he'll not only have a long career filled with amazing production to look back on — he'll also have plenty of memorable and hilarious moments to remember as well. He had his latest hilarious moment on Wednesday night, and it's probably a top-five moment for the future legend.

For some reason during a blowout, umpire Gerry Davis decided that he didn't like where Beltre was warming up with regard to the on-deck circle. Davis asked Beltre to move over to the circle, and Beltre responded by actually dragging the on-deck circle to where he was standing. Davis gave him the hook, but we're all lauding Beltre as a national treasure so who was the real winner in this moment? Of course it's Adrian Beltre, and I'd like to thank him for adding yet another beautiful moment to his cavalcade of amazing moments.

Down: Life (and Giancarlo Stanton) came at Jason Grilli in a hurry

That wasn't the only wacky moment during the Marlins-Rangers series this week. We also got this weird mini-feud over two games between journeyman reliever Jason Grilli and monstrous power slugger Giancarlo Stanton. The Rangers won Tuesday night's game 10-4, and Grilli struck out Stanton to end the game. Grilli celebrated with great exuberance, and apparently Stanton tucked that moment away into his memory banks.

Twenty-four hours later during an eventual blowout victory for the Marlins, Stanton ran into Grilli again. This time, Stanton hit a moonshot over the left field fence. Stanton celebrated with great exuberance — to the point where the celebration was nearly identical to Grilli's. It's safe to say that life came at Jason Grilli real fast. Fortunately, it stayed there and no beanballing went on, but it's still funny to see karma make a swift appearance over there in Arlington.

Up: Jaime Garcia leave the Braves on a high note


Jaime Garcia hit a grand slam in his final game for the Braves before getting traded to the Twins. Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

Jaime Garcia had a strange 48 hours before the Braves finally traded him to the Twins. For starters, the initial deal between Atlanta and Minnesota was reportedly scuttled by medical issues. At first there were rumors that Garcia's medical issues were to blame, but that would be tough to sell. As it turned out, the medical issues were with the prospect that Atlanta would've received.

It would've been hard to claim that Jaime Garcia wasn't doing too well medically, because his final start as an Atlanta Brave was memorable. For starters, he pitched seven strong innings as the Braves handed the Dodgers their first losing streak in about a month or so. During that start, Garcia hit his third career home run, and it was a grand slam to boot. If you're going to get traded, then that's an amazing note to leave town on, right?

Down: Clayton Kershaw's back is acting up again


Clayton Kershaw is back on the DL for the second straight year due to back issues. Robert Hanashiro/USA TODAY Sports

It's hard to say that a pitcher who's currently holding down a 2.04 ERA and a 2.93 FIP is having a "down" year, but when you have the ability and track record like Clayton Kershaw does, that's actually considered a down year. Make no mistake though, any pitcher would kill to have numbers and a repertoire like Kershaw's. They probably wouldn't want to have his back issues, though.

For the second consecutive year, Kershaw is going to miss a decent amount of time due to back woes. He had to exit his latest start this past Sunday due to a mild back strain. It could cost him up to six weeks, but the Dodgers don't have a timetable. A back injury in 2016 cost him 10 weeks, so it's not as bad this time around. Still, here's hoping that Kershaw can get back and healthy in a hurry. The game's better when we can watch him confound hitters with that curveball of his.

Up: The Cubs have awakened from hibernation


It's been all smiles for Kris Bryant and the Cubs since the All-Star break. Mike DiNovo/USA TODAY Sports

The Milwaukee Brewers are probably going to look back on the halcyon days of the first half of this season with a wistful eye and wonder what happened to the good ol' days because they went by so quickly. Things have changed in a hurry for the Brewers and the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs. The Cubs have awakened from their first-half slumber and come out of the All-Star gates on fire.

Chicago started the second half with six straight victories and, as of writing, have taken sole possession of first place in the NL Central for the first time since May. It'd be simplistic to say that the Jose Quintana trade fired the team up, but you should never doubt the effects of a move like that on a team's mentality. Either way, the Cubs have come to life, and we could be in for a very entertaining race in the Central if the Brewers are ready to meet the challenge.

Down: Ice Cube takes Wrigley for a ride in the seventh-inning stretch


Ice Cube sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at Wrigley Field. Patrick Gorski/USA TODAY Sports

Speaking of the Cubs, one of the best traditions in baseball is the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field. It's even better when we get a celebrity giving his or her rendition of it, because there's always a chance that something wonky is going to happen when said celeb sings it. This past weekend, that celebrity just happened to be the legendary rapper and BIG3 league founder Ice Cube.

Granted, Cube is nowhere near the worst to ever sing the song — he's definitely not the worst West Coast rapper to sing the song. Ice Cube's rendition was still easily better than the nonsense that Ozzy Osbourne delivered when it was his turn. Still, it's down there with the clunkers in the history of the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field. At least he was happy to be there, and it seemed like he was enjoying himself — you've gotta say it was a good day.

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