Ichiro reaches milestone

SEATTLE -- Ichiro Suzuki notched yet another landmark, in what is quickly becoming a legendary career, on Tuesday night.
He led off the bottom of the first inning with a single -- his 1,000th hit in the Major Leagues -- in the 3-1 over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Ichiro stung the third pitch of the game from Phillies right-hander Jon Lieber so hard that it hit the wall in right field and came back to Bobby Abreu quickly, limiting Ichiro to a single.

"One thousand is just a number," Ichiro said through an interpreter. "It's a breaking point. It's good to get to this point."

Ichiro notched 1,278 hits in nine years in Japan before joining the Mariners in 2001. He became the third Major Leaguer since 1900 (Chuck Klein and Lloyd Waner are the others) to amass 1,000 hits in less than 700 games, accomplishing the feat in his 696th game. Ichiro set the Major League record for hits in a season last year when he racked up 262.

"I got to 1,000 hits in Japan in 1999," Ichiro said. "Six years later, I can say that baseball is not getting easier."

He also became the third Major Leaguer in history to reach the 1,000-hit mark in his first five big-league seasons, joining Paul Waner, who had 1,057 in 747 games during his first five Major League seasons (1926-1930), and Kirby Puckett, who had 1,028 hits in 765 games during his first five years (1984-1988).

"Those sorts of milestones are big," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said. "Certainly I'd like to be around for his next ... 2,000."

Source: http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/