SEATTLE – As if his march toward an 84-year-old record isn’t impressive enough, Ichiro Suzuki added to his legend Monday.
He got two hits off C.C. Sabathia.
On a night when Sabathia pitched with dominating stuff in the Cleveland Indians’ 5-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners, Suzuki went 2-for-4 and continued his drive to a record that seems easily within his reach.
Suzuki now has 226 hits, with 25 games remaining to reach George Sisler’s 1920 record of 257 hits in a season. Suzuki is on pace for 267.
“Against a power left-hander who’s got as good of stuff as C.C. did, for him to knock out two more is pretty impressive,” Mariners manager Bob Melvin said. “He’s really got quite a focus going.”
Sabathia buzzed the Mariners with a mid-90 mph fastball – including one just under Suzuki’s chin – and mixed in some effective breaking pitches that most of the Mariners couldn’t handle.
Edgar Martinez also got two singles and Willie Bloomquist was the only other Mariner with a hit, a bloop double in the third inning that center fielder Coco Crisp got a glove on after a long run.
Suzuki obviously wasn’t bothered by much of what Sabathia threw, including the pitch near his head in the sixth inning that registered 96 mph on the Safeco Field scoreboard.
“Mr. Sabathia has great control,” Suzuki said. “He didn’t hit me. But there’s a line that needs to be honored and as long as it is, that’s OK.”
As with so many of Suzuki’s hits this season, neither on Monday made a difference to the Mariners, who suffered their 86th loss. The middle of the order again stumbled and left him on base after his singles in the third and ninth innings.
Sabathia struck out eight and pitched his first complete game the season.
“When you have a power pitcher who throws strikes and you give him a run or two, they make the most of it,” Suzuki said.
The Indians got five runs for Sabathia when one would have been plenty.
Travis Hafner got that in the second inning when he homered off Mariners starter Gil Meche for a 1-0 lead.
Then the Indians played add-on.
The next hitter, Casey Blake, homered for a 2-0 lead.
Meche finished the inning with two strikeouts but gave up a leadoff single to Jody Gerut in the third. Two batters later, Omar Vizquel hit a two-run homer for a 4-0 lead.
The Indians didn’t get a sniff off Meche after that. He retired the next 14 he faced before Melvin turned to the bullpen in the eighth.
“Just a couple of pitches,” Melvin said of the mistakes by Meche that the Indians clobbered. “He pitched well. Both guys pitched well, but they just took advantage of a couple of balls in the middle of the plate.”
Matt Lawton homered off M’s reliever George Sherrill for the Indians’ fifth run in the ninth. Sabathia then finished off the Mariners in the bottom of the inning, but not before Suzuki got another hit.
“This guy tonight was tough,” Melvin said of Sabathia. “And that’s how good Ichiro is right now.”
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