by Manny Machado became a member of an Elite club in San Diego on Monday evening.
The Padres star took the 2,000th hit of his career in their 6-3 loss for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Machado officially achieved the goal in the fourth inning of the game, when he hit a single from Zac Gallen, which barely passed Shortstop Geraldo Perdomo and came in the left field.
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That of course led to a large ovation in Petco Park.
Machado came in the night that two shy of the milestone. He also hit a single in the left field in the first inning. He then supported his historic hit with a solo -home run in the eighth inning too.
Machado is now only the fifth active player in Major League Baseball to record at least 2,000 career hits and the 297th player in competition history. He is also only the 12th player who records 2,000 hits with 350 home runs against his age-32 season. The Thuis Run on Monday was the 357th of his career.
Machado now has a total of 950 hits with the Padres, with whom he signed as a free agent in 2019. That has him in the fifth on the hit list of the franchise. Machado debuted for the first time in the competition with the Baltimore Orioles in 2012, and he had 997 hits there before landing with the Los Angeles Dodgers seven seasons later.
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For comparison: Dodgers -star Freddie Freeman is the active hit leader in Major League Baseball. He entered 2,357 career hits, although he has almost 2,000 shortage of all time leader Pete Rose. Jose Altuve, Andrew McCutchen and Paul Goldschmit are the other active players about the 2,000 hits.
Despite a great night of Machado, who went on the plate 3-of-5, the Padres could not return to the diamondbacks on top. The loss, their third in five games, brought them to 48-42 on the season.
