Editing Ichiro Suzuki (section)

====2009====
[[File:Ichiro Suzuki June 10, 2009.jpg|alt=|thumb|Suzuki in 2009]]
Suzuki began his 2009 season by going on the disabled list for the first time in his career. He had a bleeding ulcer, which team doctor Mitch Storey said may have been caused in part by the stress of playing in the World Baseball Classic.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://seattletimes.com/html/sports/2008979491_ichiro04.html|title=Ichiro had bleeding ulcer, will start season on disabled list|work=[[Seattle Times]]|date=4 April 2009}}</ref> After missing 8 games, Suzuki debuted on 15 April and went 2-for-5 against the Angels, including a [[Grand slam (baseball)|grand slam]] for his 3,085th overall professional career hit. The home run matched [[Isao Harimoto]]'s Japanese record for career hits, and Harimoto had been flown out to Seattle to witness the event.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2009-04-16-mariners-angels_N.htm|title=Griffey, Ichiro go yard, make history as Mariners roll over Angels|work=[[USA Today]]|date=17 April 2009|access-date=23 July 2012}}</ref> Suzuki surpassed the record the following night.

[[File:Ichiro Suzuki and Barack Obama.jpg|thumb|Suzuki meeting President [[Barack Obama]] before the [[2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game|2009 All-Star Game]] on 14 July 2009]]
Suzuki was named #30 on the ''[[Sporting News]]''' 2009 list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball, voted upon by a 100-person panel of experts and former stars. In May and June, Suzuki surpassed his own franchise record with a 27-game hitting streak.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Miller|first1=Doug|title=Ichiro's streak ends at 27 games|url=http://m.mlb.com/news/article/5159432/|access-date=12 April 2016|website=MLB.com|date=5 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423023754/http://m.mlb.com/news/article/5159432/|archive-date=23 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> Suzuki went on to record 44 hits in June 2009, his 20th career month with 40 or more hits. The previous players to have accomplished this were [[Stan Musial]] in the NL and [[Lou Gehrig]] in the AL.

On 6 September against the [[Oakland Athletics|Oakland A's]], Suzuki collected his 2,000th MLB hit on the second pitch of the game, a double along the first base foul line. He is the second-fastest player to reach the milestone, behind [[Al Simmons]]. On 13 September against the [[Texas Rangers (baseball)|Texas Rangers]], Suzuki collected his 200th hit of the season for the ninth consecutive year, setting an all-time major league record. Suzuki recorded 210 hits with Orix in 1994, thereby giving him a total of ten 200 hit seasons in his professional career.

With two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning on 18 September, Suzuki hit a walk-off, two-run home run against Yankees closer [[Mariano Rivera]], scoring [[Michael Saunders]] in one of the more memorable victories of the season. His homer made a winner out of [[Félix Hernández]], who was in line for the loss despite having allowed only one run in 9 innings pitched.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA200909180.shtml|title=September 18, 2009 New York Yankees at Seattle Mariners Box Score|access-date=27 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180402035644/https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA200909180.shtml|archive-date=2 April 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 26 September 2009, Suzuki was ejected from a game for the first time in his professional career. Arguing that a strikeout pitch from Toronto's [[David Purcey]] had been outside, Suzuki used his bat to draw a line on the outer edge of the plate, and was immediately tossed by umpire [[Brian Runge]]. He was the only Mariner to be ejected from a game all season.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2009/09/say-it-aint-so-ichiro-tossed-from-a-game.html | work=Los Angeles Times | title=The Fabulous Forum | date=26 September 2009 | access-date=5 May 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001193206/http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2009/09/say-it-aint-so-ichiro-tossed-from-a-game.html | archive-date=1 October 2009 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbeCmolnYf0|title=YouTube|work=youtube.com|access-date=6 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102095626/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbeCmolnYf0|archive-date=2 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> The ejection may have hurt Suzuki's chances regarding an esoteric record: the longest playing streak without going hitless in consecutive games. Suzuki's stretch was at 180 games, the longest in the majors since [[Doc Cramer]] went 191 consecutive games without back-to-back 0-fers in 1934–35. Suzuki went hitless in the following afternoon's game.

Suzuki again led the majors in hits in 2009, with 225.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/player|title="MLB Player Batting Stats – 2009", ESPN, accessed October 8, 2009|work=ESPN.com|access-date=1 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141002233713/http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/seasontype/2/sort/hits/order/true|archive-date=2 October 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> In spite of hitting ground balls at a rate of 55 percent, he grounded into only one double play all season; in the 15 April game, his first game played in 2009.<ref>{{cite news |last=Carleton |first=Russell |title=Baseball Therapy: 2009 in Number |url=http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=9888 |date=28 December 2009 |publisher=[[Baseball Prospectus]] |access-date=24 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127060524/http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=9888 |archive-date=27 January 2012 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> He won his second Fielding Bible Award as the best fielding right fielder in MLB.<ref>{{cite web |title=The 2009 Awards |url=http://www.billjamesonline.net/fieldingbible/the-2009-winners.asp |publisher=The Fielding Bible |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101105001529/http://www.billjamesonline.net/fieldingbible/the-2009-winners.asp |archive-date=5 November 2010 |access-date=17 November 2010 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>