Ichiro Suzuki’s Greatest Hits

Yesterday afternoon, Ichiro Suzuki became just the 30th player to reach 3,000 hits in the major leagues. He did so with a triple, making him just the second player ever to get to hit number 3,000 on a triple. It was a pretty glorious hit, and it will be one of the capstones on an awesome career. To celebrate, I thought we could take a walk back down memory lane and look at some of the most impactful hits of his Hall of Fame career. Some are his best according to WPA, some are postseason hits, and a few are just round-number hits, because we all love those. We’ll go in chronological order.

April 2, 2001, Mariners vs. Athletics
Ichiro wasted little time getting going. After grounding out to the right side in his first two major-league plate appearances, and striking out in the third, Ichiro would single up the middle in his fourth plate appearance, and drop down a bunt single in his fifth and final plate appearance of his first game.

The first hit came off of T.J. Mathews, and the bunt came off of Jim Mecir. Ichiro scored following the first hit to pull the Mariners within one run, and the bunt would push go-ahead run Carlos Guillen to third. The bunt came following a walk. Generally speaking, you don’t want to give away an out with a bunt when a reliever comes into the game and walks the first batter he faces on five pitches, but Ichiro did anyway, quickly serving notice that the normal rules of engagement did not apply to him. Guillen would cross home three batters later, and the Mariners historic 2001 season started with a bang.

August 11, 2001, Mariners vs. Athletics, .461 WPA
The hit that had the fifth-highest WPA of his career came in Ichiro’s rookie season. Down two in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded, Ichiro singled to left off of White Sox closer Keith Foulke to tie the game. One batter later Mark McLemore singled, and the Mariners had themselves a walk-off win. The win wasn’t that impactful or anything — it allowed them to maintain their 17-game lead (!) over the A’s — but it was a highly pressurized situation nonetheless, and Ichiro delivered.

Source: FanGraphs

2001 Postseason
Heading into Game 4 of this American League Division Series, the Indians seemed to be in a strong position to secure the series win. They were up two games to one, had their ace Bartolo Colon on the hill, and had won the previous game by the resounding score of 17-2. But the Mariners would not go quietly into the night.

With two outs in the top of the seventh, Ichiro worked a 3-0 count before lacing a single to right field, scoring Mike Cameron with the go-ahead run. The Mariners would go on to win the game, and this hit was the game’s most impactful. The next night, back at Safeco Field, Ichiro would tally three hits and score the insurance run in a 3-1 win that sent the Mariners to their second consecutive ALCS.

In Game 1 of the ALCS, Suzuki would do his best to keep the Mariners in it. Down 4-1 in the ninth, Ichiro stroked a one-out double off Mariano Rivera, and he would come around to score on two uncharacteristic Rivera wild pitches, but the Mariners could draw no closer. Ichiro was mostly held in check for the remainder of the series, which only lasted five games.

July 18, 2003, Mariners at Royals, .707 WPA
How many people can say they resoundingly succeeded in the biggest moments of their career? Now, there are a couple of caveats there — surely there were some moments in Japan or perhaps in the postseason that Ichiro himself would consider bigger. Perhaps even moments in the regular season, against a better pitcher, or what have you. But by leverage index (LI), Ichiro’s plate appearance in the ninth inning on this day against Royals reliever Mike MacDougal was easily the largest of his career.

With the bases loaded and two outs — and with the Mariners trailing by a run in the top of the ninth — the LI for this plate appearance was an absurd 9.04. In scanning Ichiro’s play logs, only one other PA registers even as high as 8.0. All Ichiro did was rip the first grand slam of his career. It would be the second-best hit of his career by WPA. Not bad.

Source: FanGraphs

June 14, 2005, Mariners vs. Phillies
On this day, Ichiro would reach 1,000 hits. The hit wasn’t all that important in the scheme of the game — it was a leadoff single in the bottom of the first, and he wouldn’t come around to score — but it was meaningful in the round-number sense. When he did it, with months to spare, Ichiro became just the third player in major-league history to log 1,000 hits in his first five seasons. He joined Paul Waner and Kirby Puckett in the accomplishment, and would blow past them to have the most hits through five seasons.

Sept. 6, 2009, Mariners at Athletics
Just as Ichiro became just the third player to get to 1,000 hits in his first five seasons, he also became the first player ever to reach 2,000 hits in his first nine seasons. Obviously this is a little unfair since he was already in his prime when he came over, but he also spent part of his prime in Japan. I feel like that evens things out a bit.

The hit came in Ichiro’s 1,402nd game, and like his 1,000th hit, it came early — a double leading off the game against Gio Gonzalez. It logged a .059 WPA and he would come around to score two batters later, giving the Mariners a lead that they would unfortunately relinquish in the fourth inning.

Sept. 18, 2009, Mariners vs. Yankees, .859 WPA
Mariano Rivera only allowed 71 home runs during his career, and only 63 as a reliever. In other words, the Sandman didn’t get got all that often. But on this day he did. In the fourth of a five-year stretch during which he would lead the league in hits, and in what is probably his last truly great season, Ichiro took Rivera deep, turning a game on its head with one swing:

Source: FanGraphs

It gave the Mariners their second straight walk-off win in a row, with the previous night’s coming in the 14th inning against the White Sox. It didn’t do much for their playoff odds — following the game they still trailed the Red Sox by 11 games for the wild-card spot — but it was easily the best hit of his career by WPA, and the highs of those wins like these are the reasons we watch baseball.

2012 Postseason
By the time Ichiro got back to the postseason, he was no longer in top form. He posted 2.6 WAR, but just a 90 wRC+, and a great deal of his value came from his defense and base-running. Still, he managed to hit .275/.310/.400 in nine postseason games and .353/.389/.529 in his four ALCS games.

Ichiro’s most impactful hit of the postseason by WPA was a seventh-inning double in Game 5 of the ALDS. The seventh-inning two bagger gave the Yanks a two-run lead, pushing the game from 1-0 to 2-0. Curtis Granderson’s homer would make it 3-0 the following inning, and they would hang on to win, 3-1.

In the ALCS, he would hit the one and (currently) only home run of his postseason career. The home run helped spell the end of Jose Valverde’s career. Tasked with getting the final three outs in a game the Tigers led, 4-0, Valverde only recorded two outs and allowed four runs. The first two runs came on Ichiro’s one-out homer, which was just barely fair.

Four batters later, Raul Ibanez would smash another two-run round tripper, and the game was tied. The Tigers would win in extra innings, not that it was Ichiro’s fault. He would lead off the 11th inning with a single to center, but three fly-ball outs would leave him stranded at first. An inning later, those legendary hitters Delmon Young and Andy Dirks would each drive in a run, and just like that, Ichiro’s second postseason came to a close.

June 25, 2013, Yankees vs. Rangers, .465 WPA
A walk-off solo homer off of Tanner Scheppers accounted for the fourth-best hit of his career, according to WPA. Much of Ichiro’s first full season in New York was a disappointment, but this moment was pure joy.

Source: FanGraphs

April 17, 2016, Marlins vs. Braves, .467 WPA
The third-biggest hit of his regular-season career, according to WPA, comes from earlier this season. The Marlins wouldn’t actually go on to win this game, but Ichiro’s game-tying single in the ninth off of Grilli served as a warning that the 42-year-old still had something left in the tank. This was just Ichiro’s sixth game of the season, and he had only started one of those six games. Shortly after this game, he would begin to start consecutive games. It’s a seemingly fitting end that Ichiro is writing to his career.

August 7, 2016, Marlins at Rockies
It wasn’t a dribbler, give him that much. He kept fans waiting until late in the game, but it was worth it, as he ripped the pitch from Chris Rusin off the right-field scoreboard, and would glide standing up into third for his triple. The hit was emblematic of his final season. Ichiro is doing his damndest to go out with a bang. After logging just a 53 wRC+ last season, he is currently posting a 111 wRC+. If he maintains it, it will be the 13th-best hitting season by a player in his age-42 (or older) season, and the best since Barry Bonds‘ 157 wRC+ back in 2007.

Ichiro Suzuki has had an amazing career filled with dramatic hits. There are oodles of others, far more than I have the space for here. If you find yourself an impartial observer of the National League, it’s Ichiro’s presence that should have you rooting for the Marlins to grab a postseason berth, so that the whole world can be reminded one last time just what an amazing player he has been.