Houston Astros star surpasses Seattle Mariners legend in American League history

The Houston Astros lost 3-2 on Saturday afternoon to the Baltimore Orioles. That certainly made Seattle Mariners fans happy, as it kept them 4.5 games behind Houston in the American League West.

However, Astros star Jose Altuve surpassed Mariners legend Ichiro Suzuki in the history books, which will no doubt disappoint fans who love to hate Altuve and the Astros.

With a home run in the top of the first inning, Altuve hit his 38th career home run, passing Ichiro for fifth place in American League history.

According to @StatsCentre on social media:

Most career home runs to start a game: American League player history (1901–present):
69-Rickey Henderson
60-George Springer
48- Ian Kinsler
44- Brady Anderson
38- @Astros José Altuve (for having done so in a lost cause on Saturday against BAL)
37- Ichiro Suzuki
33-Paul Molitor

Altuve, 34, will make his starting pitching debut Sunday in Houston. He is hitting .299 with 18 homers and continues to lead the lineup with Yordan Alvarez and Alex Bregman.

He’ll get another chance to hit a leadoff homer Sunday night when the Astros visit the Orioles again as part of Sunday Night Baseball.

As for Ichiro, he is one of the best players in the history of baseball.

He accumulated 3,089 career hits in the United States. He was a lifetime .311 hitter who stole 509 bases in his career.

Ichiro won a long list of awards, including Rookie of the Year (2001) and Most Valuable Player (2001). He was a two-time batting champion, a 10-time Gold Glove winner, a 10-time All-Star and a three-time Silver Slugger.

He played parts of 14 seasons with the Mariners, three with the Yankees and three with the Marlins. Remarkably durable throughout his career, he never played fewer than 136 games in a season until he was 44.

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