Alfonso Soriano and Knocking Your 2000th Hit As a Yankee

Alfonso Soriano tallied his 2000th career hit on Sunday and he did it in style, swatting a home run off Justin Verlander in the Yanks' 5-4 win over Detroit.




Soriano is the 19th player to reach the 2000-hit plateau as a Yankee. The full list, courtesy of YES Network research guru Jeff Quagliata, is below:

Felipe Alou
Yogi Berra
Johnny Damon
Joe DiMaggio
Lou Gehrig
Derek Jeter
Willie Keeler
Kenny Lofton
Mickey Mantle
Don Mattingly
Johnny Mize
Paul O'Neill
Alex Rodriguez
Babe Ruth
Joe Sewell
Ruben Sierra
Alfonso Soriano
Bernie Williams
Dave Winfield


Let's take a look at each of these in further detail. The earliest ones have limited data, but I dug up what I could. The first four entries have no play-by-play data (and all I could do with Keeler was do the math to see that the hit was in 1903). Ruth and Gehrig's had two hits and faced two different pitchers on their milestone days, but without PBP data, we can't know which one was which. Sewell had three singles in his game, all off Lyons, who pitched a complete game. At least there's everything from DiMaggio on down.

Batter	Date	Opp	Pitcher	Hit	Inn	Career Hits	Hits with Yankees
Willie Keeler	1903					2932	1956 to 2929 (974)
Babe Ruth	8/2/1929	vs CLE		1B or 3B		2873	343 to 2860 (2518)
Joe Sewell	7/17/1932	vs CWS	Ted Lyons	1B		2226	1801 to 2226 (426)
Lou Gehrig	5/30/1935	at WAS		1B or 2B		2721	All
Joe DiMaggio	6/20/1950	at CLE	Marino Pieretti	RBI 1B	7th	2214	All
Johnny Mize	6/16/1953	vs SLB	Duane Pillette	RBI 1B	5th	2011	1782 to 2011 (230)
Yogi Berra	6/28/1961	at LAA	Ryne Duren	1B	4th	2150	1 to 2148
Mickey Mantle	9/17/1964	vs LAA	Fred Newman	1B	6th	2415	All
Felipe Alou	8/25/1972	at KC	Al Fitzmorris	RBI 1B	8th	2101	1802 to 2091 (289)
Dave Winfield	7/7/1986	at TEX	Mickey Mahler	RBI 3B	5th	3110	1135 to 2434 (1300)
Don Mattingly	7/23/1994	at CAL	Russ Springer	1B	7th	2153	All
Paul O'Neill	5/2/2001	at MIN	LaTroy Hawkins	1B	9th	2105	680 to 2105 (1426)
Ruben Sierra	6/22/2003	at NYM	Graeme Lloyd	1B	11th	2152	1492 to 1640, 1986 to 2147 (311)
Bernie Williams	6/10/2004	vs COL	Jason Jennings	1B	4th	2336	All
Kenny Lofton	8/25/2004	at CLE	Jake Westbrook	1B	4th	2428	1944 to 2019 (76)
Derek Jeter	5/26/2006	vs KC	Scott Elarton	1B	4th	3308	All
Alex Rodriguez	7/21/2006	at TOR	A.J. Burnett	3RHR	3rd	2906	1536 to 2906 (1371)
Johnny Damon Alfonso Soriano	5/30/2007 8/11/2013	at TOR vs DET	Brian Tallet Justin Verlander	1B Solo HR	2nd 4th	2769 2000	1790 to 2425 (636) 1 to 571, 1990 to 2000 (582)

So Soriano joins A-Rod as Yankees that homered for their 2000th hit (Keeler did not homer in 1903, so at least we know his hit wasn't a dinger). Rodriguez's blast was also the 450th homer of his career. Yesterday marked the seventh time that the hit came in the Bronx, with the first six hit across the street. Of the 15 for which we have PBP, Soriano becomes the sixth to drive in a run with their hit.