TBNL: Jen Pawol, Ichiro, Yu Darvish

Jen Pawol made history this weekend — umpiring the bases during Saturday’s doubleheader between the Braves and Marlins before working behind the plate during Sunday’s game. The first woman to umpire an MLB game. A milestone long, long overdue.

Pawol’s stint at baseball’s highest level might be temporary (she’s a Triple-A crew chief who was only “up” to work this weekend’s series), but there’s no reason to think that she won’t be back again soon, hopefully, on a full-time basis.

Summer of Ichiro

It’s been quite a few weeks for Ichiro Suzuki.

Two weeks ago, he was in Cooperstown being enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

On Saturday, he was in Seattle as the Mariners held a pre-game ceremony to retire his No. 51. The team also revealed plans to install a statue of Ichiro outside of T-Mobile Park next season.

Next month, he’ll be enshrined in Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ichiro threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Randy Johnson, who wore No. 51 before Ichiro arrived in Seattle. The Mariners have plans next summer to retire the number again in Johnson’s honor. The duo also took an epic photo during the ceremony.

Darvish set to break NPB/MLB wins mark

A statistical milestone caught my eye at the tail end of trade deadline day. Of course, it wasn’t quite accurately reported. Let me explain.

There is a very exclusive club of pitchers who have accumulated 200 career wins with significant time in both MLB and the NPB:

• Hideo Nomo: 206 total (123 MLB, 78 NPB)

• Yu Darvish: 205 (111, 93)

• Hiroki Kuroda: 203 (79, 124)

• Masahiro Tanaka: 202 (78, 124)

Darvish had collected win No. 204 on deadline day. He surpassed Kuroda, but that wasn’t a new record.

He won his next start, too, and should be in line to make his next appearance Monday or Tuesday night in San Francisco, which will give him a chance to tie Nomo’s mark. With the rest of the season and three seasons remaining on his contract with the Padres, it’s likely the 38-year-old Darvish will indeed be the record holder soon.

Tanaka, who will be 37 in November, is also still pitching (with the Yomiuri Giants) but has struggled with consistency and health this season.

Shohei Ohtani still has a long way to go before he’s in this mix. He won 42 games in Japan before coming to the US. He has 38 wins in his MLB career so far.

Alonso ties Strawberry

It happened during a hot summer weekend when the New York baseball teams are playing terribly — so it feels a little overlooked — but Pete Alonso tied the Mets franchise home run record on Saturday. Alonso led off the fourth inning in Milwaukee with a solo shot to left-center field for the 252nd of his career.

It took Alonso 963 games to reach the mark set by Darryl Strawberry (in 143 more games).

The Mets nearly lost Alonso last offseason and could be facing such a possibility again this winter. Alonso has a player option on his contract for next year, but given the team's current performance, he could seek a larger payday elsewhere on the open market with a strong finish to the season.