DALLAS ()—Seattle Mariners manager Eric Wedge says he’s still figuring
out where to bat longtime leadoff man Ichiro Suzuki(notes).

The 38-year-old Suzuki is coming off a season in which he hit .272 with a
.310 on-base percentage, by far the lowest marks in his 11-year career with the
Mariners.

Suzuki has hit exclusively in the leadoff spot for several years. Wedge says
he’s met with the All-Star outfielder twice in the offseason.

“I’m going to put out the best nine in the right order, in the order that I
see fit to score as many runs as we can,” Wedge said Tuesday at the winter
meetings. “And if I feel like that’s him leading off, then that’s what we’re
going to do. If I feel like that’s him hitting the 3-hole, that’s what I’m going
to do. If I feel like that’s him hitting somewhere else, that’s what we’re going
to do.”

NEW YORK ()—The Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics will open next
season in Jan with a two-game series at the Tokyo Dome on March 28 and 29.

Seattle and Oakland had been scheduled to play there in March 2003, but the
series was scrped because of the threat of war in Iraq. The A’s will be the
home team in both games, the commissioner’s office said Wednesday. The series
could feature a pair of Janese stars, the Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki(notes) and
Oakland’s Hideki Matsui(notes), who is eligible for free agency.

This will be the fourth Jan opener, following the New York Mets and
Chicago Cubs (2000), the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay (2004), and Boston and
Oakland (2008).

Major League Baseball and the players’ association said the series will be
dedicated to assisting rebuilding in Jan following this year’s earthquake.

OAKLAND, Calif. () — David DeJesus and Ryan Sweeney each drove in two runs, Hideki Matsui doubled three times and the Oakland Athletics completed a three-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners with an 8-3 victory Sunday.

Kurt Suzuki, Brandon Allen and Josh Willingham also drove in runs for the A’s, who won their third straight following a five-game losing streak.

Trevor Cahill (10-13) allowed a run and five hits over five innings to improve to 1-4 with a 6.46 ERA over his last seven starts. Andrew Bailey pitched the ninth for his 19th save in 21 chances.

Dustin Ackley hit a two-run homer and Ichiro Suzuki drove in a run for the Mariners, who have dropped four straight games. Luis Rodriguez added a two-run single.

Blake Beavan (3-5) pitched five innings for Seattle and was charged with four runs and seven hits. The rookie right-hander is 0-3 with a 6.44 ERA in his last five starts.

Mariners outfielder Casper Wells left with a bruised left elbow after getting hit by a pitch in the second inning. Franklin Gutierrez departed during his at-bat in the eighth inning, grabbing his left side after a swing and miss.

Cahill’s previous victory came on July 27 against Tampa Bay. He’s allowed 28 runs in 38 2-3 innings for a 6.52 ERA since holding the Rays scoreless over 7 1-3 innings.

Matsui is hitting .343 (62 for-181) since the All Star break. He hit .209 leading up to the break. The three doubles tied a single-game Oakland record.

Kurt Suzuki’s RBI single in the second gave the A’s the early edge. DeJesus added a sacrifice fly in the third and a run-scoring single in the fifth. Allen also drove in a run in the fifth.

Ichiro Suzuki hit an RBI single in the fifth for the Mariners’ first run. Ackley hit his sixth homer with two outs in the seventh.

The Athletics responded with four runs in the bottom half of the seventh. Sweeney hit a two-run triple and Willingham had a sacrifice fly.

NOTES: A’s OF Coco Crisp missed the game to recover from fouling a ball off his foot on Saturday. … Mariners RHP Dan Cortes is expected to make a rehab pearance with Triple-A Tacoma on Monday, then join the team at home later in the week. … A’s OF Michael Taylor was not in the starting lineup two days after manager Bob Melvin said he would be. “I put my foot in my mouth there,” Melvin said. “He’ll start against some left-handers. He’ll get a chance to play. He’s not here to sit.” … Mariners INF Brendan Ryan, who was on the disabled list in August with a left shoulder injury, got the day off. … Oakland raised $63,200 on A’s Breast Cancer Awareness Day. … LHP Anthony Vasquez starts for the Mariners when they open a series in Anaheim against the Los Angeles Angels on Monday. It will be his third major league start and his second against the Angels. … RHP Rich Harden starts Monday’s game for the A’s against the Kansas City Royals. He has 64 strikeouts since the All-Star Break, fifth in the AL. He is 2-0 in five home starts.

By Al Yellon

– Editor

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Sep 2, 2011 – Seattle Mariners right fielder Ichiro Suzuki has been a hitting machine ever since he burst onto the major league scene in 2001, at age 27, after a stellar career in Nippon Professional Baseball, the Janese major leagues.

Entering 2011, he had a .331 lifetime batting average and 2,244 career hits. That’s right, he had averaged 224 hits per season over the first ten years of his MLB career, and also collected at least 200 hits in each season, tying the major league record for such things, set by Pete Rose.

Ichiro has always kept himself in great physical condition and peared to be highly focused on his craft. There didn’t seem to be too many doubts that he could break Rose’s record and keep cranking out 200-hit seasons for several more years, perhs even getting to 3,000 hits in his MLB career. That would be a remarkable accomplishment for someone who started in American baseball at the age of 27.

Except it’s not hpening. At 37, Ichiro is having the worst year of his career; his .643 OPS entering Friday’s games is over 100 points lower than his previous worst season, and with just 26 games left in Seattle’s season, he has 156 hits and a career-low .274 batting average, nearly 30 points below his previous low of .303. He’s played in all but one of Seattle’s games this year — and played the full game in all but two of the games he started.

Thursday night on MLB Network, the assembled commentators debated the issue: “Can Ichiro get to 200 hits this year?” The two former major league players on the panel, Harold Reynolds and Sean Casey, both emphatically said, “Yes!”, primarily based on emotion rather than reason; they cited Ichiro’s intensity and preparation and the fact that he’s always done it.

That’s all well and good, but we are now dealing with mathematics and a very short time remaining. Ichiro, prior to 2011, had averaged 1.413 hits per game over his career. This year, that number is far lower, just 1.156 hits per game. Even if he returned to that career level, he’d have just 37 hits in the 26 remaining Mariners games; that would fall seven short of the milestone.

To get to 200 hits for this season, Ichiro would have to average 1.692 hits in each remaining Mariners game. Even in his record-breaking 262-hit season in 2004, he did not reach that level; that season, he averaged 1.627 hits per game. He does have 51 multi-hit games this year; he’d have to essentially perform at that level for an entire month to reach the 200-hit plateau. He did get off to a good start in his first September game Thursday night, going 2-for-4 against the Angels.

So it would pear that unless the Mariners star has the September of all time, he’ll fall short of his 11th consecutive 200-hit season.

Do you think he’ll do that, and make it? Vote in our poll.

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Will Ichiro reach the 200-hit plateau?

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The Red Sox will have a full lineup late Friday night to take on Blake Beavan and the Seattle Mariners. 

The only absence from the usual group Friday will be Jed Lowrie, whose place on the team remains uncertain after his return to action against the Twins. Lowrie was just 1-for-7 with a walk against Minnesota, but the Sox can’t help but consider his past flashes of absolute brilliance, such as he displayed at the end of the 2010 season. For now, though, the Sox seem ready to stick with Marco Scutaro much of the time–especially against right-handers.

Boston Red Sox (72-44)

1. Jacob Ellsbury, CF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
4. Kevin Youkilis, 3B
5. David Ortiz, DH
6. Carl Crawford, LF
7. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
8. Josh Reddick, RF
9. Marco Scutaro, SS

Batting ninth for the Mariners tonight will be Trayvon Robinson, the main return for Seattle in the Erik Bedard trade. A top prospect for the Dodgers, Robinson made his debut for the Mariners last week, and while it’s been rough going in the early days of his Major League career, the 23-year-old has spent much of the year killing the ball in Triple-A.

Seattle Mariners (50-66)

1. Ichiro Suzuki, RF
2. Franklin Gutierrez, CF
3. Dustin Ackley, 2B
4. Mike Carp, DH
5. Justin Smoak, 1B
6. Adam Kennedy, 3B
7. Miguel Olivo, C
8. Luis Rodriguez, SS
9. Trayvon Robinson, LF

Pitching Matchup: John Lackey (10-8, 6.14 ERA) vs. Blake Beavan (3-2, 2.83 ERA)

Beavan proved quite the surprise when he first faced Boston last month. Going head-to-head with Josh Beckett, Beavan more than held his own for most of the game before running into seventh-inning trouble. Still, while Beavan did keep the Sox off the scoreboard for the most part, they weren’t at a lack for solid contact, picking up nine hits and a good few line drive outs along the way. Even if Beavan pitches just as well against them tonight, there’s no guarantee his defense will provide the same level of support.

It wasn’t always pretty, but John Lackey is coming fresh off a quality start and win against the New York Yankees. Lackey is 5-0 in his last six games–a testament to his reliability since coming off the disabled list. The Red Sox have been providing him with some decent run support in that period, but there’s no faking a 31:5 K:BB ratio. The last time he faced Seattle, Lackey provided seven innings of one-run ball, allowing just eight baserunners. If he can provide the same outing tonight, the Sox will be quite pleased indeed.

SEATTLE () – Things are changing for the Seattle Mariners, both their roster as well as their results.

The Mariners, who lost a club-record 17 straight games in July, won for the fifth time in their last seven Wednesday, beating the Oakland Athletics 7-4 behind newly acquired Charlie Furbush.

The left-hander retired the first 13 batters in five strong innings and he was supported by stellar defense and a 14-hit attack.

It was just the third series sweep for the Mariners this season, the first since taking three from San Diego May 20-22. It also was their first sweep over Oakland since Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2009.

The Mariners put a lineup on the field that included six players who began the season in the minor leagues or with other teams. Veteran Jack Wilson made his first career start at third base. Mike Carp started at first base for the first time since early last season. Josh Bard made just his 14th start behind the plate.

Casper Wells started in left field for the fourth straight game since coming over from Detroit in a trade Saturday. He came along with Furbush (2-3), who was making his third career start, first for Seattle.

“It’s tough to come into a situation where you’re on different teams and no one has seen you play,” said Wells, who went 2 for 4 with two RBIs.

“It seems like there’s some kind chemistry building within the team since I’ve been here. Everyone’s kind of feeding off each other. Guys are getting hits in there, it’s contagious. Pitchers are doing are great job. That’s when the wins come in.”

Furbush had a perfect game through 4 1-3 innings before Conor Jackson ended it with a fifth-inning double off the left-field wall that was inches away from being a home run and needed a video review.

Scott Sizemore drove Jackson home with a double.

Furbush matched his longest career outing and allowed one run and two hits with three strikeouts and no walks. It was his second career win, his first as a starter.

Mariners manager Eric Wedge said he was on a 65-pitch count. He threw 62.

“It’s tough to go five innings with that kind of pitch count,” Wedge said. “He was efficient. He used all of his pitches. He trusted his fastball. He trusted his stuff in general. He had good tempo. A lot of good things out there.”

Bard had the biggest of the Mariners’ 14 hits, a 2-run single in the fourth off Gio Gonzalez (9-9), who is 1-4 with a 6.26 ERA in his last five starts.

Trailing 7-1 entering the ninth, the A’s rallied with Josh Willingham’s 3-run home run off Jeff Gray.

Dan Cortes came in to get one out, but walked Sizemore and Brandon League came in to get Adam Rosales on a pop up and Ryan Sweeney to ground out.

League earned his 26th save in 30 opportunities.

Ichiro Suzuki had three singles, giving him 274 career hits against Oakland, second most ever by an opponent. He trails only Rod Carew (282). Suzuki is a .333 career hitter against the A’s.

Mike Carp had three hits and a pair of RBI. He’s now hitting .367 with six extra-base hits and 14 RBI in 14 games since being recalled on July 19.

“Even on our last (1-8) road trip we were hitting the ball. We just weren’t putting together our pitching and defense,” Carp said. “We’re finally starting to click. It’s been fun these past few days.”

Wilson, who played 1,267 games without once ever playing third, said he barely got much sleep overnight “thinking about those balls coming at me that fast.”

He took a bunch of hard-hit groundballs Tuesday’s game and early Wednesday. He also borrowed Adam Kennedy’s glove, which is a little bigger.

In the second, he dived to his left to stop a hard grounder by Willingham. In the fourth while positioned on the infield grass, he flashed his glove to snag a hard one-hopper from Coco Crisp. He got up and threw him out.

The Mariners added a couple more in the fifth on an RBI groundout by Carp and Wells’ single to score Dustin Ackley.

Wells added a RBI single in the seventh and Carp drove in the final run in the eighth with a RBI single.