In the midst of an improbable resurgence with the Marlins at the age of 42, Ichiro achieved the feat against the Colorado Rockies when he slugged a triple deep to rightfield in the seventh inning in Denver. The 3,000 hit bobblehead costs $35 and the hit king one goes for $40. Suzuki joined Paul Molitor as the only players to get their 3,000th hits with triples.
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Now that Ichiro Suzuki reached his milestone – he banged out hit No. 3,000 on Sunday in Miami’s 10-7 win over the Colorado Rockies – the Marlins and their fans can more fully focus on the race for a wild-card playoff berth.
The remarkable Ichiro Suzuki, who blazed a trail for Japanese players in Major League Baseball with high-average hitting, dazzling speed and a rifle throwing arm, underlined his Hall of Fame credentials by joining the 3,000-hit club on Sunday. “But later, I found out that Paul Molitor is the only other person to do it with a triple, and I have a close relationship with him”.
Marlins starter Adam Conley allowed six runs on seven hits in five innings.
Nolan Arenado did most of that damage, mashing two dingers to drive in four runs. Charlie Blackmon singled home a run in the third, and the Rockies added two runs in the fourth.Arenado led off the inning with a home run. His only other appearance vs. San Francisco was six-inning, three-run win past year.
“It took a long time for me, ” he said.
That hit, a triple, made the 42-year-old the first player from Japan to log 3,000 career hits, and the team poured out of the dugout to congratulate him at third base for this accomplishment.
On what was Faith Day at Coors Field, numerous Rockies fans were saying the same thing.
The Japanese outfielder collected his first hit in the major leagues on April 2, 2001, as a member of the Seattle Mariners.
“The level of effort he gave stood out”, the 44-year-old Okumura said. He said the sporadic playing time and at-bats had begun to wear on him in this quest to reach 3,000.
The game paused ever briefly, with the Coors Field crowd of 40,875 giving Ichiro another round of applause and the scoreboard displaying a graphic noting the moment. In Japan, Suzuki was a seven-time All-Star, a seven-time Gold Glove victor, a three time MVP and a national treasure while playing for the Orix Blue Wave.
Ichiro had another plate appearance in the ninth and drew a walk.
When Suzuki joined Orix BlueWave, now called Orix Buffaloes, of Japan’s Pacific League in 1992, he displayed a framed uniform of Ken Griffey Jr., a Seattle Mariners star, in his dormitory’s room.
7- The number of years Ichiro was the Major League Baseball hit leader, including five consecutive seasons from 2006-2010. He struck out in the first inning, hit a comebacker in the third and grounded out to short in the fourth. Ichiro, not known for his power, just missed hitting it out of the park. “It’s about my team mates and the fans, and that’s how I felt today”. “For me, getting to this point, this number that we’re talking about, I think it was important that it shows the quality of baseball we do have in Japan”.
On June 1, 2007, Suzuki got an infield single against the Rangers (his 1,426th career hit).
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Suzuki said he hopes his milestone helps more Japanese succeed in the majors. His attitude toward baseball is also gaining the attention of other major league players. “There are still very few”, Suzuki said. This historic milestone has been in the waiting, but Ichiro finally got the elusive hit.
