Although Ken Griffey Jr. has had his ups and downs during his return to the Seattle Mariners, he came up big on Saturday. In the eighth inning, hit a double to knock in Ichiro. That hit gave the Mariners a 2-1 lead that they would prove to be enough to beat the Minnesota Twins.

Ichiro and Ken Griffey Jr. key the Mariners victory (Image: Zuma Press)

Griffey, who was batting cleanup, is now hitting .224 on the season with six homers and 16 RBI. He’s also scored 16 runs and has an on-base percentage of .335.

Ichiro, a day after his 27-game hitting streak came to an end, was also a hero. He went 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI. He’s now hitting .354 on the season, which is good enough to be tied for second in the American League.

With the win, the Mariners are 27-29. The loss dropped the Twins to 28-29. The two teams end their series on Sunday afternoon.

To begin the season, Ichiro was in uncharted waters — the disabled list. Now that we are a couple of months in the the baseball season, Ichiro is at the top of his game.

By getting two hits in five at-bats on Tuesday against the Baltimore Orioles, Ichiro extended his hitting streak to 26 games. That’s not only his career-best streak, it’s also the best streak in the history of the Mariners.

Ichiro's Hitting Streak -- How Long Can He Last? (Image: Zuma Press)

The 35-year-old native of Japan is now hitting .355 and has five homers, 16 RBI and 21 runs. His batting average is the second highest of his MLB career, trailing only the .372 average he had in 2004.

With help from Ichiro, the Mariners were able to defeat the Orioles on Tuesday by a final count of 8-2. The Mariners got homers from Russell Branyan and Ken Griffey, Jr. and a strong outing from starting pitcher Erik Bedard to improve their record to 25-28.

Josh Hamilton missed 13 games for the Texas Rangers with a ribcage muscle strain. On Tuesday, Hamilton returned with a bang.

After going without a hit in his first three at-bats, Hamilton came to the plate in the seventh inning with the game tied 1-1. With one swing, Hamilton put the Rangers up 3-1 when he hit a homer against the Seattle Mariners. Texas never trailed again and beat Seattle by a final count of 7-1.

Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers (Image: Newscom)

The Rangers have now sit in first place in the AL West after winning eight of their last ten games. At 18-14, Texas has outscored their opponents by 21 runs, which is the third largest margin in the American League behind the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox.

If Hamilton can find the swing that made him such a story last season, he could help lead the Rangers to the playoffs for one of the few times in team history.

Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners has been extremely durable in his Major League Baseball career. However, to begin his 2009 campaign, Ichiro was forced to the disabled list due to a bleeding ulcer. Because of the ulcer, Ichiro was suffering from an extreme amount of fatigue. It was Ichiro’s first time on the disabled list in his career.

Ichiro Suzuki is back following a bout with a bleeding ulcer (Image: Newscom)

Although Ichiro didn’t want to go onto the disabled list, the Mariners made the move to make sure that he could get in as much rest as possible and to treat the bleeding ulcer carefully. He had spent a large amount of time with the Japanese baseball team as they played in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. In the deciding game, Ichiro had the game-winning hit to lead Japan to their second consecutive WBC championship.

Playing against the Los Angeles Angels, Ichiro returned to the lineup playing in right field and batting leadoff. Last season, the 35-year-old hit .310 with 103 runs and 213 hits.

Without Ichiro the Mariners have started the season 6-2.

Although all fans around the baseball world are having World Series visions, the reality is that there are going to be a handful of horrible teams during the 2009 Major League Baseball season. Who are the top five worst teams in baseball?

5. Seattle Mariners
The Mariners will likely be improved from last season. They have a relatively high-priced roster so Seattle can expect less bad luck this year. That said, they will likely remain a top five worst team.

4. Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates simply don’t have enough talent. They’ve played hard the last few years but without the necessary talent, it’s difficult to put victories on the board.

3. Baltimore Orioles
Although the Orioles made a few runs at big name players, they once again had a disappointing offseason. They do have a few young players would could breakout but the team will still lose — a lot.

2. San Diego Padres
After a bad season, the Padres spent most of the offseason shedding salary. That is never a good combination. San Diego is in for another long baseball season.

1. Washington Nationals
The Nationals will likely once again be the worst of the worst. They don’t have much star potential in their lineup or at the mound. Overall, Washington just remains a mess.

Washington Nationals Losers Again? (Image: Newscom)

Fifteen innings of pretty good ball for the American League versus National League All-Stars resulted in sleep loss for the East Coast and the 12th consecutive win for the AL (except for that 2002 tie).

Here are five reasons why the AL came up with a victory yet again:

 1. Ichiro Suzuki’s pre-game F-Bombs. Move over, Bobby Knight. The Seattle Mariners‘ perpetual All-Star has a nifty peptalk ritual for his AL teammates every year.

2. Florida Marlins second baseman and probable never-again All-Star Dan Uggla set—wait for it, this one’s nice and corny—an Ugg-ly record by committing 3 errors in the game.

3. The NL probably isn’t quite accustomed to the ‘tude in New York. (That’s OK, neither were we last week). More AL teams play in Yankee Stadium and are aware of the exceedingly obnoxious Yankees fans who even booed other AL players challenging atmosphere for an opposing team.

4. Boston Red Sox right fielder J.D. Drew rocked, nabbing the MVP in his All-Star debut with a two-run HR during his first at-bat. It probably helped that as a member of the Red Sox, he didn’t get verklempt over the sappy pre-game Yankee lovefest. (We’re guessing Jonathan Papelbon, whose Mariano Rivera remarks made him—along with his pregnant wife—a jeer target, didn’t either).  

5. Yogi Berra was in da house. Yeah, even Sox fans can’t resist his wit. Boo to Joe Buck for giving him the heave-ho in the booth. Yogi was just getting started!

Yikes, if we had known that Seattle Mariners manager John McLaren was about to be shown the door along with GM Bill Bavasi, we wouldn’t have posted a video of his rant the other day as a farewell to Bavasi and GM Willie Randolph of the New York Mets.

No, not because we feel guilty or think it would have been in poor taste. It’s mostly because had we known, we’d have posted the rant video today instead.

Speaking of heads rolling, we’re off to go watch Showtime On Demand . . . the season finale of The Tudors, of course. You know, the one where Henry VIII’s second wife Anne Boleyn gets the less-than-royal treatment from the executioner.

Think of it as a future trivia question: Which two GMs got canned within days of one another in June 2008?

Indeed, Bill Bavasi of the Seattle Mariners and Willie Randolph of the New York Mets can now play golf the rest of the summer.

First up to bat: Bavasi. His Seattle Mariners have the worst record in the MLB, 24-45. (Wanna know why our face is red? Our beloved Boston Red Sox dropped 3 of 6 games to the Mariners, therefore supplying them with 1/8 of their wins. Yeah, we can’t believe it either). Interim GM Lee Pelekoudas has the task of turning this team, with its $117M payroll, around. 

Next at the plate is Randolph, whose Mets have a $138M payroll and yet have a head-scratching record that hovers at or below .500 (34-35 at post time). Jerry Manuel is The Chosen Replacement.

As a farewell to this pair of GMs, we’ve decided to post Seattle manager (who remains with the Mariners) John McLaren’s rant (50s) from earlier this month. Why? Because we employ any excuse to post two things 1) supermodel and/or hot athlete pictures and 2) rants. Enjoy!