Ichiro raps out another 5 hits

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Ichiro Suzuki has had a great season, but it had to be said, the major league single season hits record was sliding away.

Over the last two weeks, the Seattle right fielder had batted just .256 - and George Sisler’s 1920 record seemed to move further and further away with each game.

Until Tuesday.

In a season long lost to the Seattle Mariners, Ichiro produced another five-hit game – his record-tying fourth of the 2004 season – and this time it came in a 7-3 victory over the Anaheim Angels.

The win was inconsequential to the M’s, a major setback for Anaheim and another footnote in what has become a one-man show that’s appreciated at home and on the road.

The Angels needed to win to keep their postseason hopes alive, yet when Ichiro turned his fifth at-bat of the night into his fifth hit in the eighth an Anaheim crowd of 42,251 stood and cheered.

What Ichiro did Tuesday – what he has done all season – is that – extraordinary.

“It’s hard for a player to think about the records while he’s playing,” Ichiro said. “My first year, it wasn’t until after the season that I realized what a wonderful year it had been.”

In 151 games, Ichiro has collected a career-best 243 hits.

That’s 14 hits shy of Sisler’s record, which was set in a 154-game season – and it’s the ninth-best hit total in a season in the history of the majors.

With 11 games remaining, Ichiro will continue to climb that list, and no matter what total he finishes with, he will own two of the top-10 season hit totals in history.

And he’s played in the majors all of four years.

“He gets a hit or two and it just sets him off,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Five hits? Nothing new. He’s done it four times this year, and whenever he gets a fourth hit, you just kind of expect him to get a fifth. He’s amazing.”

The five hits pushed his A.L.-leading batting average to .372, and his name into yet another exclusive club.

Only four other players in major league history have had four five-hit games in one season – Tony Gwynn, Stan Musial, Ty Cobb and, in 1897, Wee Willie Keeler.

All are in the Hall of Fame.

To join them, Ichiro made each of his five at-bats a personal triumph.

•In the first inning, Ichiro singled on the first pitch of the game, shooting a base hit into center field.

•Second inning? Single into left field.

•Fourth inning? Chopper to the right side and Ichiro beat the throw from second baseman Chone Figgins.

•Sixth inning? Single to left field.

•Eighth? Single down the left-field line.

“You get hits in your first few at-bats, you feel good and in a rhythm,” Ichiro said. “If you don’t get on base, you don’t feel quite as good.

“But I see every at-bat as an opportunity to get a hit.”