Ichiro had 1,278 hits for the Orix BlueWave in Japan’s Nippon Pro Baseball, where he began his career before moving to Seattle. It was only fitting he flashed both in his historic moment.
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The Miami Marlins beat the Colorado Rockies 10-7 on Sunday in a game that featured Ichiro Suzuki’s 3000th hit.
The Marlins outfielder did it Sunday with a triple in the seventh inning against Colorado at Coors Field.
“On behalf of the Seattle Mariners organization and the fans of the Northwest, I would like to congratulate Ichiro on his 3,000th hit in Major League Baseball”, Lincoln said.
“Obviously, I wanted to see it go over the fence, ” Ichiro said. Ichiro talked about that, and how much he treasured the two seasons they played together for the Mariners in 2009-10, when I interviewed him last month in Miami.
Suzuki was hitless in his first three at-bats of the game before he tagged Chris Rusin.
The 42-year-old Suzuki hit a long drive to right field that carried just beyond the reach of leaping Gerardo Parra.
The Colorado crowd gave him a rousing ovation while Suzuki’s teammates poured out of the third-base dugout to celebrate the moment.
Leadoff batter Dee Gordon clung to Suzuki and hitting coach Barry Bonds embraced him with a broad smile on his face.
When Ichiro signed with the Seattle Mariners out of Japan before the 2001 season, it was hard to know what he would be able to accomplish in the Major Leagues.
Greeted with cheers every time he came to bat, Suzuki struck out in the first inning, hit a comebacker in the third and grounded out to short in the fourth.
Suzuki joins Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rico), Rod Carew (Panama) and Rafael Palmeiro (Cuba) as the only players with 3,000 hits who were not born in the 50 United States. “It took a longer time than I thought it should have”.
Cano only needed to play in 2,465 more consecutive games to match Cal Ripken Jr.’s major league record.
Former teammate and five-time World Series champion Derek Jeter, a 13-time All-Star who retired from Major League Baseball after the 2014 season, described Ichiro as one the game’s all-time greats.
Another member of the 3,000-hit fraternity, Yankees legend Derek Jeter, said in a statement, “Congratulations to my friend and teammate Ichiro on joining the 3000 hit club”.
– At 42 years and 290 days, Ichiro is the second-oldest to reach 3,000 – trailing only Cap Anson, at 45 (who did it in 1897), and topping Rickey Henderson by only four days.
“For me, it’s been an honor to watch him play, an honor to have managed him”, Mattingly said.
Former Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez hit Alejandro de Aza with an 0-2 pitch to lead off the ninth and Walker drove a high 1-0 changeup over the wall in right center for his 19th home run.
33- The number of games Ichiro missed in his first 12 seasons.
But Ichiro got there despite coming to the U.S.at 27 years old – by which time most players are past their peak. Sano also became the first player to hit a ball off the roof at Tropicana Field, which opened in 1998, in the first when his pop fly hit 210 feet above the playing surface before being caught by third baseman Evan Longoria. The reliever failed to field a soft grounder to the mound off the bat of Miguel Rojas, who later scored on a double by Christian Yelich.
Bumgarner (10-7) gave up just two hits, including Ramos’ 18th homer in the seventh inning. Jose Fernandez is scheduled to make the start for the series opener.
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Overall this season, Cueto is 13-3 with a 2.73 ERA.
