The Road To 3,000

He’s 42 years old. He’s been playing major league baseball since 2001. He went into Tuesday night’s game with 2,996 hits and he collected one more that sparked the Miami Marlins to a 5-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Ichiro Suzuki needs three hits to reach 3,000 hits. Only 29 players in Major League Baseball have accomplished that.

Ichiro not only singled in the eighth inning, he stole second base and scored on Giancarlo Stanton’s double.

He’s not a full-time player anymore. Tuesday night’s start was his first since last Thursday. The Marlins won’t risk wearing out an older player who still produces (he went into the Phillies game hitting .335), but they spot him. His last four appearances in games had been as a pinch-hitter and he is not expected to start Wednesday’s afternoon game against the Phillies.

“This is not a guy who is just treading his way to 3,000. This guy has been helping us, big time,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly told MLB.com.

Ichiro was 27 when he left Japan to join the Seattle Mariners, for whom he played 11 full seasons and part of a 12th. He had 1,278 hits in Japan, so for his career he’s at 4,275. Pete Rose holds the MLB record of 4,192 and no, it’s not legitimate to lump Ichiro’s figures together and say he’s the all-time leading hit-getter. Leave that to Rose.

The Marlins have an important series coming up with the St. Louis Cardinals. The Marlins trail the Washington Nationals by four games in the National League and could be in a fight with Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers for a playoff berth, if not the division title.

Ichiro will help. Here and there, when he can. And he’s get that 3,000th hit soon enough.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman