Ichiro Get's No. 4,000, Yanks Win On Soriano's Late Homerun

Prior to tonight, only two players in baseball history had collected 4,000 career hits. Ichiro Suzuki is now the third player to reach that feat.

Ichiro came into the game with 3,999 hits, and lined a single to left field in his first at-bat of the game, in classic Ichiro style, shooting the ball to left field past a diving Brett Lawrie at third base.

In a surreal moment, the entire New York Yankees dugout flooded out onto the field to congratulate Ichiro on his accomplishment. The hit also moved him past a man named Lou Gehrig on the all-time hits list.

"It was supposed to be a number that was special to me, but what happened tonight, I wasn't expecting," said Ichiro.

"When my teammates came out to first base, that was very special. The fans, I wasn't expecting so much joy and happiness from them. That's what made it very special tonight; not just the number, but all the things that came with it were very special."

To the game, Adam Warren got the start for the Yankees, making just the second start of his Major League career. His stuff looked good early, but putting away the final out of the inning seemed to be an issue.

Warren gave up the first run of the game in the top of the second inning on an RBI single to right field by Anthony Gose. Ichiro came up firing from right, but the throw one-hopped over the glove of Austin Romine at the plate, taking away any play at the plate.

Romine would come back to tie the game in the bottom half of the inning, missing a three-run homerun by a matter of feet, but with the ball caught at the wall, Eduardo Nunez tagged and scored from third base.

Curtis Granderson put the Yankees in the lead in the 4th inning on an RBI single to right field after Robinson Cano doubled, scoring from second on the base hit.

Josh Thole lead off the 4th inning with a homerun off Warren, who was taken out a couple pitches later after only 61 pitches. Warren was on a 75-pitch limit coming into the game, and throwing a lot of pitches early in the game forced Yankees manager Joe Girardi to pull him after 3 plus innings.

"The biggest thing was just try to go as long as I could," Warren said. "I really wasn't sure how long I could go, but I just tried to go as long as I could and give the team a chance to win."

David Huff took over from there, and from there, he literally took over the game. Huff gave the Yankees five very solid innings, giving up only  one hit, while walking four and striking out two on 70 pitches.

"We've had to use our bullpen a lot, so it was really important for our guys," Girardi said. "Three or four guys got a night off, which was important moving forward. Just an outstanding performance by Huff."

With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the 8th inning, Cano ripped a two-out single into right field, then Alfonso Soriano, who was 0-for-17 coming into the at-bat, launched a go-ahead, two-run homerun off R.A. Dickey to give the Yanks a 4-2 lead.

"I said, 'This is the chance now to do something impressive,'" said Soriano. "Every game is very important for us. I just wanted to see a good one and make a good swing, and that's what happened. He threw me a good one and I made a good swing."

Mariano Rivera entered the game in the 9th inning, and after giving up a one-out double to Rajai Davis, Rivera picked off Davis at second base for the second out of the 9th, then struck out Edwin Encarnacion looking to end the ballgame.

Huff picked up the win, Mariano took home the save, and overall, the Yankees have won four in a row, and 10 of the last 14 games, as well as 12 straight against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.

"It's great. It's a long season," Soriano said. "Sometimes we have a bad week or two weeks, but we come back from that. I think the lineup we have now is very strong, and I hope the offense keeps producing like we're producing right now."

In the second inning, Jayson Nix took a knuckleball from Dickey off his left hand. He would leave the game immediately after, and x-rays would show that he suffered a fracture on that left hand. You can click here for the full story.

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