Nobody Asks But Us: Ichiro, Pineda make waves

Ichiro finished April with 14 multi-hit games, most in Major League Baseball. That included a four-hit game against Detroit on April 19. What is Ichiro’s highest total of multi-hit games in a month? And how do you rate Michael Pineda’s first month in the major leagues?

We’ll tackle Ichiro first. Fourteen obviously isn’t bad, but Ichiro has had more in a month many times. In May,2004, en route to 262 hits, Ichiro produced 18 multi-hit games (May is frequently his best batting average month). He also had 17 multi-hit games in August 2004, when he had a franchise-record 56 hits, and 16 multi-hit games in May 2001. Ichiro has had six months with 15-multi-hit games, the last in June 2009.

Of more interest to us than Ichiro’s top multi-hit months: A couple of weeks ago, after Ichiro produced the 44th four-hit game of his career, we posted a chart comparing that total to the totals of modern-era Hall of Famers who finished their careers with at least 3,000 hits. We would have stayed away from Ichiro, statwise, for a while, except that Ichiro won’t let us.

Since his four-hit extravaganza on April 19 in a 13-3 Mariner victory over the Detroit Tigers at Safeco Field, Ichiro has produced seven more multi-hit games (six with two hits, one with three hits), enabling him to exceed 700 multi-hit games for his career — while just barely into his 11th season in the Major Leagues.

It’s interesting — in fact, astonishing — how this compares the totals compiled by modern era Hall of Fame batters (those who spent the majority of their careers performing in the era of divisional play: since 1969) — in the first 11 years of their careers.

With 705 career multi-hit games (through Tuesday), Ichiro has 54 more (practically a full season’s worth) than No. 2 Kirby Puckett, who had 651 such contests for the Minnesota Twins between 1984-94.  Ichiro produced 705 multi-hit games while playing in 1,617 contests. Puckett had 651 in 1,646.

Most multi-hit games by modern-era Hall of Famers (or players with 3,000 hits) through the first 11 seasons of their careers (again, Ichiro is barely into his 11th season):

Ichiro’s 705 multi-hit games are the most in the Major Leagues since 2001, in fact, 133 more than No. 2 Derek Jeter of the Yankees. Leaders in multi-hit games since Ichiro came into the majors:

Since the beginning of divisional play in 1969, no player has produced more multi-hit games in a season than Ichiro had in 204 — 80. Only two players have produced more multi-hit games in a year than the 75 Ichiro had as a rookie in 2001.

On Tuesday, Major League Baseball selected Michael Pineda as the American League’s Rookie of the Month for April (first Mariners rookie to win the award since Rafael Soriano in 2003). Pineda went 4-1 with a 2.01 ERA in the season’s first month after losing his debut game. We went back to 2003 and looked at all starting pitchers selected Rookie of the Month, and ranked them according to ERA. This is how Pineda compares (note that current Mariner Aaron Laffey, then pitching for Cincinnati, had the best ERA among Rookie of the Month winners):