Matt Murton celebrated his 29th birthday by tying Ichiro Suzuki for the most hits in a single season in Japanese baseball, and his teammates contributed with three longballs in the Hanshin Tigers' 7-2 win over the Hiroshima Carp on Sunday.
The victory moved the Tigers into second place ahead of the idle Yomiuri Giants in the Central League.
Murton grounded into a fielder's choice once and flied out twice before hitting a single to left in the seventh inning to match Ichiro's single-season mark of 210 hits set with the Orix BlueWave, when there were only 130 games played in 1994. The Tigers have three games left this season.