One more to go for Izturis

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

August 06, 2010, 1:13pm

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No, they are not counting down with banners on the Warehouse, but the next hit for O's shortstop Cesar Izturis will be the 1,000th of his career. He said he found out recently he was closing in on the milestone hit because his 10-year-old son, Daniel, was keeping track. "My son has kept me up to date on it. He tells me you need eight more, seven more and so forth." Hit number 999 will be memorable as well as it was an Izturis single in the last of the ninth Thursday night that gave the O's a 5-4, walk-off win over Los Angeles. Izturis, who hit .355 during a 23-game stretch that began June 23, is now batting .288 over his last 37 games. He has 786 career hits in the National League, where he won a Gold Glove in 2004 and made the All-Star team in 2005 while with the Dodgers. He has 213 hits in the AL and the next one completes Daniel's countdown. "It's an honor. A thousand hits is a lot of hits. I'm happy and look forward to getting that hit. "Being around for almost ten years, it shows some hard work I've put in, in this game. I feel proud of it," Izturis said.