Alex Rodriguez has done it. He has reached the career milestone of 3,000 hits, and he did it in the best way possible: a home run.
On the first pitch in his first at bat off Justin Verlander Friday night, Rodriguez launched a 95-mile-per-hour fastball for a solo home run (13) into the right-field bleachers for hit #3,000 and home run #667 of his illustrious career.
Rodriguez becomes the 29th player in Major League history to collect 3,000 hits and only the third to do so with a home run. Only Hall of Famer Wade Boggs and future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter have done so before him.
Rodriguez now has 2,004 runs batted in for his career (second all-time since the RBI became an official stat in 1920) to accompany those hits along with a .299 career average at the time of the home run.
In his return from his 2014 season-long suspension, Rodriguez is playing much better than many expected. His line at the time of the home run was .281/.387/.523, 13 HR, and 35 RBI in 216 official at bats spread over 63 games.
Yankees play-by-play announcer Michael Kay of YES Network announced during the fifth inning of Friday night's game that Rodriguez is one of only two players in Major League history to have surpassed 3,000 hits, 600 home runs, and 2,000 RBI; the other is Hank Aaron.
MLB.com's Bryan Hoch also noted, "Rodriguez joined Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, and Rafael Palmeiro as the only players to log both 3,000 hits and 500 home runs" and that tonight's was the fifth home run that A-Rod has hit off Verlander.
Rodriguez knocked the first hit of his long career with the Seattle Mariners. On July 9, 1994, he singled off the Boston Red Sox' Sergio Valdez. Overall, A-Rod has 986 hits with Seattle, 569 while with the Texas Rangers, and 1,465 as a Yankee as of hit #3,000 in the first inning.
