Maybe it’s an exaggerated recollection, because ballplayers have been known to weave tapestries out of tall tales. But Jon Lester claims that somewhere among the more than 30,000 pitches he’s thrown in his time in the big leagues was a curveball that bounced in the Seattle dirt — “It barely reached the cut of the grass,” Lester said — and then into the bat of one Ichiro Suzuki, who turned the bouncer into one of his now 3,000 base hits.

The most important piece of the Padres’ offense of late might be leadoff hitter Travis Jankowski, who has just one home run to his name this season.

Despite all the international attention paid to Ichiro Suzuki’s 3,000th hit, for him and the rest of the Marlins, it was just another stop in a journey that began last February in Jupiter, Fla., with Don Mattingly making his introductory speech, a journey that the Marlins are beginning to think could end with an invite to the postseason party.

Can you have too much of a good thing? Not when you’re piling up victories, but it can complicate the handing out of awards. It’s problematic for voters when a team has two players arguably worthy of winning the Most Valuable Player Award in the same season, as do the Cubs in Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant.

The Rays have launched ballparkreimagined.com, a website that will serve as a public informational resource in the quest for a new ballpark.

Those who know Rob Ramsay know there was so much more than his two seasons in the Majors to his story — a story that came to a sudden and heartbreaking ending last Thursday, when the doting husband and father of two young boys suffered the seizure that would claim him at age 42.

Mike Trout is the logical choice. David Ortiz is the sentimental favorite. Josh Donaldson won last season and is again putting up monster numbers. There’s also Jose Altuve and Mookie Betts and Miguel Cabrera, all solid candidates. In other words, there’s no clear-cut choice to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award at this point.

After a whirlwind week that began with the Yankees trading Andrew Miller and Carlos Beltran and ended with the surprise retirement announcements of Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, the Yanks are moving on. Not just from the present, but also in a lot of ways from a past that brought them their 27th and most recent World Series title seven years ago.

Rob Segedin’s MLB debut couldn’t have gone much better, as the left fielder’s two bases-loaded hits helped the Dodgers eke out an 8-5 win for the series victory over the Red Sox on Sunday.

With a solo homer in the seventh inning, Adrian Gonzalez reached 300 home runs in his career during the Dodgers’ 8-5 win Sunday over the Red Sox at Dodger Stadium.

On his 25th birthday, and on a weekend that the Mariners have dedicated to Hall of Fame center fielder Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Trout leaped over the fence and robbed another home run.

Talk of Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks beginning to mount a National League Cy Young Award bid began to percolate a week ago, and after the righty’s dominant performance Sunday against the A’s, it will presumably continue.

The Rangers, after missing on multiple opportunities to put the game away, scored two runs in the top of the 11th and held on for a 5-3 victory over the Astros on Sunday afternoon at Minute Maid Park.

The greatest retirement tour in history continues apace.

Maikel Franco, Cesar Hernandez and Tommy Joseph turned the 32nd triple play in franchise history in a 6-5 victory over the Padres at Petco Park, and it came at a critical point in the game, too.

Ichiro Suzuki became the 30th player in Major League history to collect his 3,000th hit, tripling off Rockies left-handed reliever Chris Rusin in the seventh inning of Sunday’s series finale at Coors Field.

Baseball players sometimes must dive into the unknown.