SEATTLE – In a season of bad baseball, the Seattle Mariners were putting the finishing touches on one of their worst games of the season.
From the cinder pile of another ugly loss – 7-3 to the Kansas City Royals on Thursday at Safeco Field – rose Ichiro Suzuki.
He hit reliever Jeremy Affeldt’s first pitch of the ninth inning over the center field fence for a home run that made major league history. It was his 200th hit this season, making him the first player to get at least 200 in his first four seasons.
By doing it in the Mariners’ 126th game, he also reached 200 faster than any player since 1930, when Bill Terry got his 200th in the New York Giants’ 119th game and Chuck Klein got his in Philadelphia’s 125th game.
He had one 200-hit season in Japan, 10 years ago.
“In Japan, about the 120th game I had 201 hits. To go about the same pace and do the same thing over here, I didn’t imagine doing that,” Suzuki said.
The next plateau is the major league record of 257 hits in a season, although Suzuki says he won’t dare look that far ahead.
“You have goals that you can see, but this is too far for me to see,” he said. “In Japan, I had 210 hits in 130 games. Maybe trying to get that can be a short goal that I would look at. Then, once that comes about and it’s within reach, then maybe I’ll think about that.”
Among those who showed their amazement was M’s manager Bob Melvin, who tried to absorb the good feeling of Suzuki’s accomplishment with a loss that was hard to watch.
“To do it in dramatic fashion like that, when we’re playing probably our worst game of the year…” Melvin said. “To keep his focus and do that is a testament to how hard he works and put everything aside.
“It hurts him bad when we lose and continue to go through stuff like this. But he comes out the next day and prepares himself as well as anybody I’ve ever been around.”
Before Suzuki’s milestone hit, a difficult Mariners season took another homely turn.
The Mariners made three errors, including two on the same play. They continued to squander situational hitting opportunities, getting runners on base with less than two outs in seven innings yet scoring only single runs in the first, sixth and, of course, the ninth.
Bret Boone, who Melvin said lost track of the ball-strike count, found himself caught in a rundown as he tried to steal second with nobody out and runners on first and third in the sixth, even though the Mariners trailed 6-1 at the time.
It all added up to the Mariners’ 80th loss. To avoid a 100-loss season, they must win 19 of their remaining 36 games, a .472 pace that’s entirely possible with one exception. The Mariners are a .368 team that has lost its last four.
And Jamie Moyer remained winless since June 18, when a victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates was his fifth straight and gave him a 6-2 record.
He’s now 6-9, and his seventh straight loss took shape early.
After he got the first out of the game, Moyer gave up two hits and a walk to load the bases for Abraham Nunez. Moyer threw a fastball that had no movement, and Nunez pounded it over the left-field fence for a grand slam homer and a 4-0 Royals lead.
By the time Suzuki came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, the Mariners trailed 7-2 and few remained in the crowd of 30,962.
They cheered him loudly as he came to the plate, then wouldn’t stop after he lined Affeldt’s first pitch over the right-center field fence. Eventually, Suzuki appeared on the top step of the Mariners’ dugout and tipped his helmet to the crowd.
As much as it meant to them, Suzuki aptly sized up the meaning his accomplishment.
“I’m a guy who’s not very big. To be able to come over and have this record, maybe I can be someone people like that can look up to, looking at my size and knowing they can do it, too.”
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