During the ninth inning of the Miami Marlins’ 6-3 loss to the San Diego Padres, baseball history was made.
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Ichiro, winding down his fabulous career as a part-time outfielder with the Marlins, got two hits Wednesday to raise his total to 4,257 – but that’s including 1,278 from nine years in the Nippon Pro League to go with 2,979 in 16 seasons in the majors. Rose was quoted recently by USA Today as saying: “I’m not trying to take anything away from Ichiro, he’s had a Hall of Fame career, but the next thing you know, they’ll be counting his high-school hits”.
“A Japanese athlete has once again made a monumental contribution”, Abe said, “and I feel tremendous pride”. Put aside the debates about whose hit total is more legitimate and just put the spotlight on two of the greatest hitters baseball has ever seen. His first hit Wednesday was on a dribbler in the first. His second was a double into the right-field corner in the ninth, when he took off his helmet and waved it to applauding fans.
“Look, MLB has widely been considered to be the greatest league of baseball in the world and I’ve got to be honest, I only count those”, he said. “It’s about my teammates and the fans”. When a new coach arrived, Suzuki was given more play time, eventually being placed as the leadoff batter.
Justin Nicolino (2-4) gave up five runs and 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings.
Ichiro topped the second pitch of the game from the Padres’ Luis Perdomo along the first-base line and easily beat the throw from catcher Derek Norris, which pulled Wil Myers off the bag but wouldn’t have been in time.
Addison Russell had given the Cubs the lead with a run-scoring single off Yusmeiro Petit (2-0) in the top half.
Strasburg gave up one run in seven innings for the Nationals, and Hammel did the same for Chicago. He’s now closing in on his 3,000th Major League Baseball hit, a staggering total considering how long he played in Japan before coming to the U.S. That’s what Texas catcher Bobby Wilson, a former teammate of Suzuki’s, wants to focus on.
The White Sox had a 5-3 win over Detriot, with Chris Sale allowing three runs in seven innings to become the first 11-game victor in the majors, Boston beat Baltimore 6-4, Texas rallied from five down to beat Oakland 7-5, and the Tampa Bay Rays edged the Seattle Mariners 3-2 in 13 innings.
Late replacement Kelly Johnson also homered for NY.
In the ninth, he passed Rose with a two-base hit off Fernando Rodney.
Xander Bogaerts and David Ortiz each had two singles and an RBI for the Red Sox.
– George Springer hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning and the Houston Astros completed a two-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Astros are 15-7 since moving Springer to the leadoff spot ahead of Jose Altuve.
– Nolan Arenado tied for the major league lead with his 20th homer and drove in three runs, and the Colorado Rockies beat the Yankees to sweep a two-game series and send NY to its fourth straight loss.
– Marco Estrada had another sharp outing and Edwin Encarnacion and Josh Donaldson hit solo homers as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Philadelphia Phillies.
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Sale bounced back from a string of pedestrian turns by allowing just two base-runners in his final four innings on Wednesday night.
