Michael Young entered Tuesday night’s series opener in Oakland with 198 hits, needing just two more in his team’s last nine games to reach the milestone 200 hits for the sixth time in his career. He only needed one of those games. Young’s three hits helped Texas hold their division lead over the Angels and added another achievement to his impressive offensive career.
Young first played a full season in 2002 and reached 200 in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. Down years in 2008 and 2010 kept him just shy, while an injury limited him to 135 games in 2010. He would have made it easily that season if he’d participated in his usual 155+ games.
He’s back on the horse in 2011, currently batting .333 at age 34. This hits brought his career total to 2049 in 1660 games. Young is a career .303 hitter. Young started the day seven points behind Adrian Gonzalez in the batting title race. Both had three hits, so the margin is still seven points.