IT HASN'T EVEN GOTTEN WARM OUT YET:

Hits just keep coming for Ichiro: M's right fielder continues brilliant batting in singular fashion (DAVID ANDRIESEN, 6/13/06, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Ichiro has gone on some tears, but what he's done the past few weeks would have to rank near the top. It took him just over a month to raise his average 100 points, from .260 to .362, between May 5 and June 8. He's batting .366, second in the American League.

Boosting your average 100 points in a month, in the middle of the season? It sounds all but impossible -- but then again so does batting .457 over a 31-game span, which is how Ichiro did it.

Two months ago he was on pace for his worst season. Now he's on pace for 255 hits, just a stone's throw from his major league record of 262. He set that record in 2004, when he started with a .255 April -- 32 points worse than his April performance this year.

"The league had a month to get him out," Mariners outfielder Willie Bloomquist said. "Now for the rest of the season, it's payback time."

He only has to boost it half that the rest of the way.

MORE:
Ichiro's on another upswing (Bob Finnigan, 6/13/06, Seattle Times)

They'll have trouble translating this one back in Japan, but the latest word on Ichiro's batting is: "flat-dab."

As in: "The guy can just flat-dab hit."

That, according to Mariners manager Mike Hargrove, is pure Panhandle Texan talk.

Ichiro seemingly has, if not reinvented himself, reinvigorated the wonder, and helped recharge Seattle's batteries. Ichiro is hitting .461 since May 19, and the Mariners have gone 14-9 during that stretch and have a chance to right their season.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 13, 2006 8:02 AM