SAN FRANCISCO -- Ichiro Suzuki has had plenty of banner moments during his 17-year career in the Majors. The 2007 All-Star Game at AT&T Park is certainly high on his list.
Now 10 years nearly to the date, Ichiro is back in the same park where he made All-Star Game history.
The game's MVP and leadoff hitter, Ichiro went 3-for-3 and recorded the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game play. Ichiro said Saturday the one-of-a-kind moment still comes up in conversations with players in the Majors.
"I'm definitely not going to forget that," Ichiro said through his interpreter, Allen Turner.
The homer, which came off then-Padres pitcher Christopher Young, took a strange carom off AT&T Park's unique right-field wall. Right fielder Ken Griffey Jr. couldn't track it down in time, cementing a historic moment for Ichiro and helping the American League claim a 5-4 win.
"I remember a few games before the All-Star Game, I had a foul ball off my foot," Ichiro said. "And so I really didn't want to run because I was still kind of hurting. But when I saw that [window], I knew I had to run."
Ichiro's not one to think ahead. But nobody -- Ichiro included -- could have guessed the league's schedule would land him back in San Francisco near the game's 10-year anniversary.
As he tells it now, Ichiro had to shuffle his postgame plans realizing he was going to earn MVP honors, though the National League rallied to score twice in the ninth.
"I came in and actually showered and changed into my clothes," Ichiro said. "I had my reservations at a restaurant and I was ready to go. ... I was thinking, if I become MVP, I'm going to have to change my plans and goose up my schedule. That's how I thought then.
"But now that I look back, I'm glad that it worked out that well and I was able to get MVP."
Worth noting
Marlins manager Don Mattingly said the team will likely start Dan Straily to open second-half play. Straily is coming off a terrific start -- 8 1/3 innings of one-run ball.
Straily and his wife are expecting a baby soon, Mattingly said. "That's one thing that could alter that a little bit," he said.
Mattingly said Jose Urena will likely pitch Saturday, followed by Edinson Volquez and Tom Koehler.