There is very little Ichiro Suzuki has not seen or handled in his long, illustrious two-continent career. And yet as he stood in leftfield in the eighth inning of yesterday’s opener of the Yankees’ day-night doubleheader with Toronto, he had one wish.
Let the ball go to right field.
“Maybe my prayers just weren’t good enough,” Ichiro explained through an interpreter while laughing.
Instead, with the bases loaded, Rajai Davis sent a 2-2 Rafael Soriano slider screaming toward left. Combine ball flight, game situation and afternoon sun and you know why Ichiro had been wishing this torturous moment on Raul Ibanez in right. But Ichiro charged, snared the ball in the heel of his glove, cradled it against his body and hit the ground rolling to secure the out and make the key defensive play of the Yankees’ ultimate 4-2 victory.
“Saved the ball game,” said reliever David Robertson.
Ichiro was only getting started as a 4-for-4 effort in the second game completed a 7-for-8 day and night.
“I am just really sad the day is over,” Ichiro said.
Not so the Blue Jays, who were killed all day by Ichiro’s bat and were equally frustrated by his first game glove.
“That’s a good play,” praised manager Joe Girardi, who saw Ichiro score the add-on run in the bottom of the eighth inning. “I don’t know if he caught it with his glove or his stomach. The sun is very difficult.”
Just ask Ichiro.
“That’s obviously in the back of my mind, that the sun is right there. It was one of those balls where you don’t know if you should play it off a bounce or if I need to come in and have time to get it. Hard to judge that distance,” Ichiro said. “I really was thinking to myself, ‘Hopefully the ball doesn’t come to me.’ I was hoping it would go to right field.
“That ball flight alone is tough but then you add on the day game, sun, the situation we were in, makes it really tough. It was definitely a tough play.”
Ichiro admitted the heel of his glove took the biggest hit, not his gut – “I don’t have a belly,” he said.