Joe Mauer notched the 2,000th hit of his career as the Minnesota Twins blanked the Chicago White Sox 4-0 on Thursday.

"Leading up to it, I didn't try to make a big deal of it, to be honest," Mauer said. "When I got up there the at-bat before, the fans started to get into it. It put some more adrenaline in my system there. It was a special moment, especially coming off a tough lefty and driving in a couple runs, too."

Mauer is the third Twins player -- Rod Carew and Kirby Puckett -- and the 12th active player to reach the milestone. He's one of 287 players in history to reach the mark.

"You do the math of the percentage of players who are in that category versus the people who have had a chance to put the uniform on and it's fairly low," said Paul Molitor, a member of the 3,000-hit club. "You start finding yourself in categories and rising into areas that few people get a chance to experience."