On Sunday afternoon versus the Colorado Rockies, Suzuki became the 30th man in Major League history to accumulate 3,000 career hits. That hit came after a stretch that saw Suzuki, mostly used as a pinch hitter these days by the Marlins, go hitless in 11 at-bats over seven games since reaching 2,998 hits on July 28. The outfielder is one hit away from the 3,000-hit fraternity and could join the hallowed club in the rubber game of the series with Colorado at Corrs Field.
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Rookie David Dahl had three hits to extend his hitting streak to 12 games and Daniel Descalso drove in three runs for Colorado, which is 15-7 since the All-Star break.
Suzuki gave the crowd a wave as he went into the dugout.
Considered the greatest hitter in Japanese baseball history, Ichiro dominated the game in his homeland for almost nine years during which he was a seven-times Pacific League batting champion and racked up 1,278 hits. “The Gold Glove third baseman snatched Suzuki’s chopper with his bare hand and missed throwing out the legend by only half a step”.
Suzuki began to forge a Hall of Fame career with the Seattle Mariners in 2001 after he signed out of Japan as a 27-year-old with his orthodox left-handed batting stance and sweet line-drive stroke that produced 1,278 hits in his native land.
Stole 45 consecutive bases without getting caught over the course of the 2006 and 2007 season, an American League record and five short of the all-time mark set by Vince Coleman.
Blackmon came within a double of hitting for the cycle for the first time in his career.
“I think baseball was always more than just a game to him”.
He beat out an infield single for hit 2,999 on Saturday against the Rockies. He stayed in the game and grounded out in the ninth.
Suzuki is the first player to collect his 3,000th since Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez achieved the feat on June 19, 2015.
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“Prior to Ichiro’s first game for the Mariners in 2001, the late Pancho Ito, a Japanese baseball broadcaster and historian, said, ‘He is a genius with the bat.’ Mr. Ito was absolutely correct”, Mariners chairman Howard Lincoln said in a statement.
