And the hits keep coming

The last-place Seattle Mariners have proved all season they can be shut down. The same is not true for their slap-happy outfielder, Ichiro Suzuki, a leadoff batter and a contact hitter who gives opponents headaches with the variety of ways he can get hits.

Ichiro, 30, became the first player to start a career with four 200-hit seasons with his solo homer on Thursday night. Now he’s taking aim at one of baseball’s oldest and least-known records: George Sisler’s single-season record 257 hits, set in 1920.

“I haven’t thought about it at all,” says Ichiro. “I just want to play well and give the fans something to get excited about. We don’t have a good record, but I want to go out and play to the best of my ability. We have a lot of games left. I have to focus on those games and not what’s already happened.”

Steve Hirdt of Elias Sports Bureau says that Sisler’s record is forgotten because fans focus on a player’s batting average: “If Ichiro goes after the record, it’d be great, the closest thing you could get to chasing Joe DiMaggio’s (56-game) hitting streak. It’d be exciting if Ichiro needed 20 hits with 15 games to go.”

Sisler, who had an engineering degree, was a left-handed batter who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1939 with a .340 career average. His 257 hits for the St. Louis Browns helped him win the American League batting title with a .407 average. Two years later, he hit .420 to win a second title.

Ichiro has come closest to Sisler’s record since World War II — when he had 242 hits in 2001, a year in which he was not only the A.L.’s rookie of the year but also it’s MVP.

Ichiro likely has a good idea about Sisler’s career; after his rookie season, he spent three days at the Hall of Fame. He asked Hall officials to keep his visit quiet.

“I wanted to learn about the history behind it,” he says. “I don’t know as much as the average American would know.”

Ichiro already has broken one record: Paul Waner’s 75-year-old mark for most hits in a player’s first four seasons (840). Next up could be Sisler’s mark.

A hit man with varied strokes

August is supposed to be the dog days, when players, especially those on underachieving non-contending teams such, go through the motions. Ichiro isn’t following that script.

He batted .274 in June and carried an overall .320 average into July. He since has zoomed into the batting lead in the A.L. thanks to a .432 July average and a sizzling August.

Since July 20, Suzuki has had two five-hit games and four four-hit games. On July 31, he became the first player since Joe Medwick in 1936 to record two 50-hit months in a season. Saturday, Ichiro became the first player with three 50-hit months in a season. (Hall of Famers Rod Carew and George Brett each had one 50-hit month in their careers.)

Ichiro, at 5-9, 170, has a unique batting style:

“He sometimes starts running to first base as he swings.

“He can pull an inside pitch to right field — he has the Mariners’ record with 12 leadoff home runs — as easily as he can slice a double down the left-field line.

“He can hit a ball 10 feet and use speed to reach first base.

“He spreads the defense and hits the holes with line drives and ground balls.

“And he mixes in a few bunts.

“It’s almost like he has the knack to guide a ball through a hole,” Paul Molitor, Seattle’s hitting coach. “It’s like he has a special feeling for finding the holes.”

The two have opposite styles: Molitor, who had 3,319 hits and was inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, had a still, steady approach; Ichiro moves around and adjusts in the batter’s box.

Molitor, who had four 200-hit seasons, with 225 his highest, says he doesn’t coach Ichiro.

“He’s recovered from a slow start and raised his average 50, 60 points when he’s had more than 300 at-bats — that’s something that’s hard to fathom,” Molitor says.

Mariners reliever Shigetoshi Hasagawa, a teammate of Suzuki’s with Japan’s Orix Blue Wave, is amazed at Ichiro’s concentration: “When he’s like this, you can’t touch him or get him out. And, it’s not just his skills. For him, it’s the mental games. He’s very disciplined and focused.”

It’s been a wild ride of late for Ichiro. Last week in Kansas City, he got slammed in the back of his head by a fastball from Jimmy Serrano. Ichiro experienced dizziness and was going to sit out the next day, but got a break: The game was rained out and rescheduled.

“Thank you, God,” Suzuki said.

The following night in Detroit, he was feeling dizzy but legged out three infield hits. He said the first hit “felt like three beers, and by the end, it was down to one beer.”

Losing year overshadows chase

Ichiro’s historic season might be keeping Mariners fans interested at a time when meaningless second-half games are being played for the first time at 5-year-old Safeco Field. Inside the clubhouse, the feeling is different.

The Mariners were built to contend this season, but have been relegated to September spoiler in the A.L. West. The roster is in a state of transition, with prospects such as infielder Bucky Jacobsen getting a chance to win jobs for 2005.

Infielders John Olerud and Rich Aurilia are gone. Designated hitter Edgar Martinez, who will retire after the season is in the lineup for home games only. Pitcher Freddy Garcia was traded, and second baseman Bret Boone was nearly traded. Catcher Dan Wilson lost his job to Miguel Olivo.

Ichiro’s hitting is great, but nobody is thinking his record-chasing season eases the pain of losing.

“Maybe in the last few days we can think about it,” outfielder Randy Winn says. “This has not been a fun year, and you don’t think about records at this time of year.

“I remember one year in Tampa Bay, Jose Canseco had 31 or 32 home runs at the (All-Star) break, but at the time, we didn’t think about it. Now, when I look back, I think, ‘Wow, that was a lot of home runs.’ Ichiro is swinging the bat really well, and some day, I’ll sit back and say, ‘That was amazing, and I was there to see it.’ “

Martinez agrees. He hit .343 to win the batting title in 1992, when Seattle lost 98 games.

“Ichiro is as hot as a player can be, and he’s fun to watch, but this is a disappointing season,” Martinez says. “In 1992 I remember the empty feeling I had when I was doing well, and the team wasn’t. I remember thinking, ‘Something’s missing.’ “

When it comes to his performance, Ichiro, experiencing the first losing season of his career, doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about. He had a slow start because the Mariners wanted him to be less aggressive, thinking that would help his power numbers. Ichiro didn’t like that, so he went back to his usual style.

He says his goal is to get 200 hits in every season and that he’s just doing his job, that it isn’t any more difficult playing during a losing season than during a winning season.

He says he wants to be good enough so that he can reach a point where fans are not amazed.

“I don’t wonder why I’m getting these hits,” he says. “At this point in my career, I should be doing what I am doing. I want to be the kind of player where the fans look at what I do and think, it’s just another day.”