Ichiro moves within 4 hits of 3,000 with pair of singles

Ichiro Suzuki moved closer toward immortality Thursday at Citizens Bank Park, where the venerable Miami Marlins outfielder recorded the 2,995th and 2,996th hits of his MLB career with a pair of singles against the Philadelphia Phillies for his 18th multi-hit game of 2016.

Making just his second start since the All-Star break, the 42-year-old notched an infield single off Jerad Eickhoff in the third and added another single in the eighth, giving him 4,274 hits as a professional - he hit 1,278 in his native Japan - and bringing him within four hits of his 3,000th as a big leaguer.

"To think this young man would be playing at age 42, going for 3,000 hits, I didn't think it as possible then," Lou Piniella, the Mariners' manager when Suzuki debuted in 2001, recently told Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. "Two thousand hits would have been an outstanding achievement."

Now four hits shy of tying Roberto Clemente for 30th on the all-time leaderboard, Suzuki entered Thursday's series finale with a .341 average in 79 games this year, having gone 28-for-74 (.378) since June 7.

(Video courtesy: MLB.com)