Ichiro: Another 200 Hit Season?

Ichiro Suzuki is trying to reach 200 hits for his 10th consecutive season, but is still 73 hits short after slumping since the All-Star break.

He has only nine hits in 52 at-bats since the break while hitting .173 in that span.

Only one of his 22 hits this month, a double on July 15, has been for extra bases.

He was hitting .360 on May 15, but his batting average has dropped to .307 after an 0-for-4 game on Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox.

It takes roughly 34 hits a month to have a 200-hit season, but Ichiro only has 22 hits this month with four games remaining.

Another interesting stat is that he has only four multi-hit games in July. He had 12 in April, 13 in May, and 11 in June.

Ichiro will be 37 in October and has played 19 years of professional baseball (nine years in japan and 10 in the MLB).

He has 2,157 hits with the Mariners and 1,434 hits with Orix while playing in Japan, for a total of 3,591 hits.

Even though Ichiro has had some bad slumps in the past, this one is a major concern, since his average has dropped from .360 to .307 in the last two-and-a-half months. He is hitting only .175 in his last 10 games with seven hits in his last 40 at-bats.

He may bust loose any day and have a four- or five-hit game, but right now it is questionable whether he will reach 200 hits this season.

If he finishes the season batting under .300, it will be for the first time in his career with the Mariners.

Around the Diamond

The Nationals pulled Stephen Strasburg from his scheduled start against the Braves Tuesday, and they later found he has an inflamed right shoulder. With the Nationals fourteen-and-a-half games behind the NL East-leading Braves, there is no reason to send him to the mound until they are 100 percent sure he is healthy.

The Reds took an easy 12-4 win over the Brewers behind a 19-hit attack. The first four Reds in the batting order accounted for 15 of those hits, with Brandon Phillips (4-for-6), Orlando Cabrera (3-for-6), Joey Votto (4-for-6), and Scott Rolen (4-for-4) also combining to drive in seven runs.

It looked like the perfect time for Alex Rodriguez to hit his 600th home run against the Indians Tuesday with Josh Tomlin making his major-league debut. Instead, Tomlin held Rodriguez hitless.

Fausto Carmona will take the mound today against Rodriguez and the Yankees, hoping not to join the slugger in the record books as the pitcher who gave up No. 600.

Jose Bautista hit two more home runs yesterday, extending his major-league lead to 30. Bautista had hit 13 home runs in 59 games before the All-Star break. Since then, he has hit six in his last 12 games.

He had never hit more than 16 home runs or drove in more than 63 runs in his career before this season. He has already hit 30 home runs and drove in 75 runs this season with 61 games remaining in the 2010 season.

Cubs rookie Tyler Colvin is only two home runs behind team leader Alfonso Soriano, who has 18. Colvin has hit 16 in 82 fewer at-bats.

Yovani Gallardo had a better game at bat than on the pitcher’s mound. He gave up six runs for the second time in his last three starts in the Brewers' 12-4 loss to the Reds but hit the eighth home run of his major league career and his fourth on this season.