M’s warmed up in May; Ichiro torrid

SEATTLE — Say this much for the month of May: It wasn’t especially kind to the Seattle Mariners.

But, hey, it sure beat April.

Reasons for Seattle’s minor insurrection were noticeable during the May and, by no coincidence, on Monday at Safeco Field in a 6-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Give large credit Ichiro Suzuki’s bat and Jamie Moyer’s left arm for contributing to Seattle’s 11-16 mark in May and the team’s victory over Toronto before 27,856 fans.

“A lot of good things happened … that is good to see,” Moyer said. “Everyone is contributing. That’s important. To win, you can’t have one guy trying to carry the team.”

True. But if Moyer and Ichiro duplicate their success in May, well, who knows what June might hold for Seattle.

Ichiro had three hits and drove in a run. More importantly, he became only the second player in major league history to twice get 50 hits in a month. The other player to do so was Pete Rose.

Ichiro, who finished the month with 50 hits in 27 games, is hitting .335 after a pedestrian beginning in April (.255).

“(Rose) was a hitting machine, and so is Ichiro,” Seattle manager Bob Melvin said. “He had been more selective on balls he was going after before. He has such a great knack for being able to make adjustments.”

The same could be said for Moyer. Lately, he’s pitched more like a pitcher who won 21 games in 2003, and not a 41-year-old on the backstretch of his career.

Moyer (4-2) won his third consecutive start during May, dazed an injury-plagued Toronto lineup that was devoid of starters Carlos Delgado, Orlando Hudson and Frank Catalanotto, among others.

Consider them Toronto Lite.

Moyer, who went 3-0 with a 3.35 ERA in May following his drab April (1-2, 5.10), yielded two runs in 72/3 innings.

“I’ve created some consistency for myself,” Moyer said. “A lot of that has to do with getting ahead in the count.”

The damage the Blue Jays’ junior varsity imposed on Moyer was minimal – solo home runs by Menechino and Vernon Wells. In all fairness, the homer Wells blasted in the fourth – a rocket into the first row of seats in the upper deck in left field – could have easily been worth more.

Other than the home runs he allowed, the only other real trouble Moyer faced came in the eighth inning. After 105 pitches and with two runners on base, Melvin went to his bullpen for Shigetoshi Hasegawa – he of the 6.08 ERA – to get the final out of the inning. That hasn’t always been as easy as it sounds this season.

But Hasegawa was able to get Bobby Estalella looking at a fastball on the outside corner for the final out.

“That’s our guy down there,” Melvin said of Hasegawa.

It wasn’t just Moyer and Ichiro who contributed greatly to the team’s 19th victory of the season. Seattle (19-31) – which was 8-15 in April – also got two nice plays at third base from Scott Spiezio, who dove to his left and then to his right for ground-ball outs in the second inning.

Center fielder Randy Winn had two hits and knocked in three runs. Winn also made two running catches with his back to the plate to rob the Blue Jays of extra-base hits.

Shortstop Rich Aurilia, who came in hitting .229, scored two runs, had two hits and knocked in a run.

Ichiro, sitting in front of his locker, looked unfazed by his accomplishment. He does have an autographed ball from Pete Rose that was a gift from former bench coach John McLaren, but that’s about his only tie to Rose.

“As a kid, he was in a catalog I looked at,” Ichiro said. “I didn’t know it was only the second time someone did it. I don’t know too much about the history of the game.”

Increasingly, Ichiro is becoming a part of it.