Robinson Cano gets milestone 2,000th hit, and quickly

As a mostly disappointing season winds down for Robinson Cano and the Seattle Mariners, Cano can take solace in an important personal milestone.

On Wednesday night Cano hit an eight-inning single in a 4-3 loss to the Royals for his 2,000th career hit. He did it in a hurry, too. He became just the 14th player in history to get 2,000 hits in his first 11 seasons. He joins some pretty elite company in that group, players like Pete Rose, Hank Aaron, Wade Boggs, Stan Musial, and Ichiro Suzuki.

Cano told MLB.com he was happy to reach the milestone despite another loss.

“It was good, but it would have been better if we’d ended up winning,” Cano said. “That’s all that matters now is winning games. But it’s something, getting to 2,000, you’ll never forget. As a kid in your backyard playing, you’re dreaming of getting to this day. But losing is not fun.”

“It means a lot, being in the same category as Pete Rose and Musial, and those guys that are legends, heroes, guys that are examples,” Cano said. “To be in with those kinds of names, as a person and player, you should be proud of yourself.”

After a terrible first half of the season, Cano has been on fire in the second half, though the Mariners are out of the playoff race. In his second season since signing with the Mariners Cano slashed his way to a .251/.290/.370 with just six homers and 30 RBIs in the first half. But in the second half he has improved to .326/.391/.547 with 13 home runs and 43 RBIs.

Cano is 12th among active players in hits.

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Ian Denomme is an editor and writer for Yahoo Sports. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.