Beltran texted Darvish, consoled Gurriel after dugout incident

Houston Astros veteran Carlos Beltran has had little to no impact on the field thus far in the World Series, but he's making his presence felt off it.

The 40-year-old texted Los Angeles Dodgers starter Yu Darvish shortly after he learned his teammate, first baseman Yuli Gurriel, mocked the right-hander with a racist gesture in Game 3, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

Beltran wanted to reassure Darvish that he considers Gurriel "a good person" and explained to the Dodgers starter that he wouldn't have taken the initiative if he felt differently about his teammate.

"Yu is a great guy, one of my favorite in baseball. He's such a giant with a super-humble heart," Beltran said of his relationship with Darvish. "When I played with Texas, I got close to him. I saw his quote. Class act. It blew my mind, saying what he did."

After the game, Darvish noted the gesture was disrespectful, and later posted a statement saying "No one is perfect" that encouraged positivity and understanding.

In his texts to Beltran, Darvish wrote, "He (Gurriel) only made a simple mistake and learning from this incident will mean a lot to him. I love seeing him play and I always look forward to facing him. My feeling hasn't changed a bit. In all sincerity, I highly respect and love the player and person."

Beltran described Gurriel as "devastated" in the clubhouse before the game Saturday and said he tried to encourage him.

"At the end of the day, I told him, 'Man, you know what? We'll learn from this. We learn from mistakes,'" Beltran said.

"I showed him the text from Yu. I said, 'Look how Yu feels about it. I took the initiative doing this because I believe in you, you're a good person. And I wanted to make sure he had nothing against you.'"