AMERICAN LEAGUE: INSIDE THE A.L.: SEATTLE IN FIRST DESPITE SHAKY STARS.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

That the Seattle Mariners are atop the American League West five weeks into the season qualifies as only a mild surprise. But who could have figured they'd be there without large contributions from their best player and alleged No. 1 starter?

Though they've made do so far, it will be difficult for the Mariners to maintain their 22-13 pace (through Friday) unless right fielder Ichiro Suzuki and right-hander Freddy Garcia get it going.

Garcia, who won 18 games during the Mariners' 116-win season two years ago, is 3-4 with a 5.40 ERA and is responsible for nearly one-third of Seattle's losses. Given a 3-0 lead Thursday night against the New York Yankees, Garcia coughed it up and then some, yielding nine earned runs in the third inning and leaving to a chorus of boos from the usually supportive Seattle crowd.

``If you're a professional, you've got to put something in your ears and not hear anything,'' Garcia said afterward. ``That's hard, but you've got to go on and do the best you can. The fans, they all want you to do good, and when you don't, you've got to take it.''

Garcia's woes have been tempered by the emergence of Gil Meche, who's finally healthy after missing two years with arm trouble, and the continued reliability of 40-year-old left-hander Jamie Moyer, who along with Meche has picked up much of the rotation slack thus far.

If there's a thread between Garcia's and Suzuki's troubles, it's that both started going south after the All-Star break last year.

Garcia is just a .500 pitcher since then. Suzuki entered last year's break hitting .357 but finished at .321 after he hit .282 in August and .248 in September. He followed that with a .243 average this April, and despite seeing the two worst months of his career come in consecutive fashion, he insisted he doesn't need to make adjustments to pitchers who have adjusted to him.

Suzuki gets a healthy diet of high, inside fastballs, and while he could adjust by taking those balls down the right-field line, thus far he hasn't done so regularly. Opposing pitchers seem to have the book on getting Suzuki out, not that they're willing to give it up publicly.

``We're all trying to find a way to get him out and see how he makes an adjustment to that,'' New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens said last week. ``Every hitter has a weakness, just like a pitcher does.''

But it's not like Suzuki is on a one-way ticket to mediocrity. He has perked up some after his dreary April, hitting .353 on a recent road trip to push his average in the .275 neighborhood. Sure, Suzuki has vulnerabilities, but he's also too good a hitter, .330 lifetime, not to figure mightily in the Mariners' pennant chase.

``To be where we are without him hitting up to par is very encouraging for us,'' manager Bob Melvin said. ``His hits are going to come.''