Jays bid fond adieu
TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays are glad Ichiro Suzuki is leaving town.
Ichiro collected three more hits, but Orlando Hudson and Vernon Wells homered to lead the Blue Jays to an 8-6 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday night.
Ichiro, chasing George Sisler’s major league record for hits in a season, went 3 for 5 to reach 217 hits. He has 29 games left to break Sisler’s mark of 257 hits set in 1920 with the St. Louis Browns.
Ichiro, the American League player of the month for August, leads the majors with a .374 average. He finished 20 for 40 against Toronto this season.
“He’s unbelievable,” said Blue Jays interim manager John Gibbons. “I never thought I’d fear a guy who hits singles. He’s a weapon. Geez, I guess if you’re great, you’re great.”
Hudson and Gabe Gross drove in three runs, and Wells ended a 0-for-24 slump with a two-run homer for the Blue Jays, who won for the third time in nine games.
Seattle manager Bob Melvin could tell the Blue Jays were in awe of his star right fielder, Ichiro.
“You can see the look on those guys faces when Ichiro leads off the game with a hit,” Melvin said.
Asked if he can keep up at this pace, Suzuki said through a translator: “Ask a fortune teller.”
Bob File (1-0) pitched 1 1/3 innings for the win, and Justin Speier recorded three outs for his third save.
The Blue Jays got off to a quick start against Cha Seung Baek (1-1), who allowed eight runs and eight hits in 2 2/3 innings in his first major league start.
Hudson hit a solo shot in the first, and Toronto scored six runs in the second on Hudson’s two-run double, Wells’ homer and Gross’ two-run single.
Gross chased Baek in the third with an RBI single that gave Toronto an 8-3 lead.
Toronto starter Justin Miller walked Raul Ibanez with the bases loaded in the first before allowing Bucky Jacobsen’s RBI grounder and Jolbert Cabrera’s run-scoring single.
Jose Lopez’s RBI double and Ichiro’s run-scoring single in the fourth cut the deficit to 8-5, and Willie Bloomquist added an RBI grounder in the sixth.