Dustin Pedroia Records Career Hit 1,000

Dustin Pedroia entered Monday's afternoon tilt against the Seattle Mariners with 999 career hits in 3,301 at-bats. He finished the day collecting hits 1,000 and 1,001, making him the 31st Red Sox player to reach the 1,000-hit threshold, joining a group with the likes of Hall of Famers Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Wade Boggs, Bobby Doerr, Joe Cronin, Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice, and more.

Maybe 31 sounds like a lot, but for a franchise that has existed for well over 100 years, it makes sense that there would be plenty of players crossing the 1,000-hit mark. Pedroia also accomplished the feat faster than most, as his first-inning double in career game 833 made him the sixth-quickest to reach 1,000 hits in Boston's history, behind Nomar Garciaparra, Boggs, Pesky, Williams, and Rice. Not bad for a second baseman who had all of 17 base knocks in his first 31 career games.

It was inevitable that Pedroia, barring catastrophic injury, was going to reach 1,000 hits before year's end. But it's encouraging to see it occur at a time when he is busy correcting his season line with a hot stretch that has seen him hit .342/.393/.557 since July 23. Pedroia might have damaged his season output playing while hurt earlier in the year, but if he can keep up the patented Pedroia course correction for another few weeks, that earlier stretch will be forgotten about in his overall season line.