TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays are glad Ichiro Suzuki is leaving town.
Suzuki got hit three more hits, but Orlando Hudson and Vernon Wells homered to lead the Blue Jays to an 8-6 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday night.
Suzuki, chasing George Sisler’s major league record for hits in a season, went 3-for-5 and has 217 hits. He has 29 games left to break Sisler’s mark of 257 hits set in 1920 with the St. Louis Browns.
Suzuki, the AL player of the month for August, leads the majors with a .374 average. He finished 20-for-40 against Toronto this season.
“He’s unbelievable. I never thought I’d fear a guy who hits singles,” Blue Jays interim manager John Gibbons said. “He’s a weapon. Geez, I guess if you’re great you’re great.”
Hudson and Gabe Gross drove in three runs, and Wells ended an 0-for-24 slump with a two-run homer for the Blue Jays, who won for just the third time in nine games.
Seattle manager Bob Melvin could tell the Blue Jays were in awe of Suzuki.
“You can see the look on those guys’ faces when Ichiro leads off the game with a hit,” Melvin said.
Asked if he can keep up at this pace, Suzuki said through a translator: “Ask a fortune teller.”
Bob File (1-0) pitched 11/3 innings for the win, and Justin Speier got three outs for his third save.
The Blue Jays got off to a quick start against Cha Seung Baek (1-1), who allowed eight runs and eight hits in just 22/3 innings in his first major league start.
Hudson hit a solo shot in the first, and Toronto scored six runs in the second on Hudson’s two-run double, Wells’ homer and Gross’ two-run single.
Gross chased Baek with an RBI single in the third, which gave Toronto an 8-3 lead.
Toronto starter Justin Miller walked Raul Ibanez with the bases loaded in the first before allowing Bucky Jacobsen’s RBI grounder and Jolbert Cabrera’s run-scoring single.
Jose Lopez’s RBI double and Suzuki’s run-scoring single in the fourth cut it to 8-5, and Willie Bloomquist added an RBI grounder in the sixth.
Notes: Blue Jays C Gregg Zaun left with a bruised right elbow after being hit by a pitch in the second inning. Zaun went to 1B after Baek plunked him, but didn’t come out for the top of the third. Kevin Cash replaced him. Zaun is day-to-day. … The Blue Jays purchased the contracts of SS Russ Adams, 1B Eric Crozier and RHP Ryan Glynn from Triple-A Syracuse and recalled C Guillermo Quiroz from Syracuse.
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