(My Sportsbook) - They are the top team in all of baseball, one win better than the Atlanta Braves entering play on Wednesday, and still the Seattle Mariners found a way to drop a series to one of the worst teams in the majors last week.

Not since the second week of the season had the Mariners lost a series to a team that had a losing record (a 4-5 Angels team took two of three games from Seattle at Safeco Field).

Since that time the Mariners have come out on the losing end in just four series, two of them versus the Yankees and one each to the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos.

But the big difference here was that the three clubs mentioned above were well-above .500 and were contenders in their respective divisions, no where near the Padres and their standing which is currently last in the National League West, 29 games below .500 and 22 1/2 games out of first.

So what exactly happened to the Mariners last Friday against San Diego at Qualcomm Stadium? Ichiro Suzuki posted a trio of hits as he kept his lengthy hitting streak alive, and Seattle hurlers shut down the Padre bats for eight innings.

Then came the ninth and reliever Jeff Nelson, who was blasted for five runs, including a walk-off grand slam by Rondell White with two outs. Nelson was twice a strike away from sending the worst team in the NL to yet another defeat, but the Padres refused to roll over.

"Eight years ago, this would have been harder for me to handle," Nelson told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "I've learned to not think about it. I've done nothing but think about what happened for 10 or 20 minutes now. And now I've got to look ahead.

"I'm not sure what the weather is here, but the sun comes up tomorrow."

And with that the Mariners went out on Saturday and picked up a 4-2 win. Then came the series finale on Sunday when the Mariner bats fell silent for the most part.

Again Ichiro posted a pair of hits for the club, but other than that, Boone added a couple of hits (one being a solo home run) and John Olerud collected a single to account for all five of the team's hits in their 3-1 setback.

Two weeks earlier the Mariners had dropped 20 runs in a doubleheader versus the New York Mets, but after that the team was just 7-6 and was outscored by San Diego 9-7 over the weekend.

Designated hitter Edgar Martinez sat out the series with the Padres because the NL does not use the DH, and while he may have added a bit more punch to the Seattle lineup, losing out on his services was not the entire reason that the Mariners failed to perform.

"We have struggled a bit, for us," manager Bob Melvin stated after his team was nearly shut down completely by a San Diego pitching staff that is currently second to last in the NL in ERA with a 5.33 mark.

Should the Mariners, a team which is 23-15 at home, be wary of San Diego's impending arrival at Safeco for a three-game set this weekend? Not likely. Chances are the club will use the opportunity to show just how much their first series with the Padres was a fluke and why they will be a team to beat when fall comes around.

WHO'S HOT

Simply stated, Ichiro is on fire this month. He has pushed his batting average to .358, second-highest in the American League, thanks to a 19-game hitting streak that has led to a .465 average in June alone. He has hit in all but 11 of the 73 games in which he has appeared.

Bret Boone has just six hits over his last six contests, but he has accounted for two of the team's three home runs in the last week, posted four RBI and scored three times as a result.

WHO'S NOT

Mark McLemore has appeared in four of the team's last six outings, but has just one hit in 13 at-bats during that stretch.

Randy Winn, who spent the first five years of his career with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, has a mere three singles in his last 25 plate appearances to give him a slugging percentage of .120 over the last week.

COMING UP

Another couple of games against the Anaheim Angels in Southern California this week and then the Mariners head back to Safeco Field where they will seek vengeance against the Padres in a three-game set over the weekend. After that Seattle heads back out on the road for seven games against AL West foes (four with the A's and three at Texas).