PITTSBURGH -- Mariners six-time All-Star Ichiro Suzuki knows what it's like to have his team in good shape at the All-Star break. The Mariners were in the process of running away with the American League West during the 116-win season of 2001 at 63-24.

He also knows about years when the All-Star break meant the season was half-over, and nothing more -- like the last couple of years, when the Mariners were 22 and nine games below .500.

But what happens when a team is somewhere in the middle? The Mariners this season are 43-46, but that's just 2 1/2 games behind the Athletics and the Rangers atop the division. The Mariners went 14-4 in Interleague Play and 18-8 in June. But before Sunday's 3-2 victory over the Tigers they'd lost six straight and ditched their momentum.

As usual, Ichiro, who will start for the American League in the outfield and is joined on the roster by Mariners second baseman and first-time participant Jose Lopez, has an elegant answer.

"If there is a problem, we need to notice what creates the problem," Ichiro said in Japanese, through his translator. "The problem usually isn't just on the cover. You need to look much deeper. For example, if we're talking about a tree and the tree has a problem, you need to look at the root. But you cannot see the root. The mistake is to keep watering the fruit. That's not going to solve anything."

That's a profound way for Ichiro to say either he plans a post-career life as a gentleman horticulturist, or he is trying to figure out his club just like others are. He noted that because the hot streak occurred during Interleague Play, when the Mariners mopped up in the NL West before losing two of three to the Rockies in the final series, so there is no clear indication how they stack up against teams they play most.

Hanging in the air is the fact Ichiro is in the next-to-last year of his contract. He would not address what the club needed to do outside of money issues to keep him a part of the future, saying with a laugh that addressing that would be "ruining the fruit." But he made it clear the Mariners need to improve to win.

"Actually, I didn't even know the number of [2 1/2]," Ichiro said, referring to the division race. "If you just look at the numbers, you can think that way. But until your team reaches a certain level and becomes a winning team, those numbers are not important. We need to look past that and care more about being a winning team. I don't care about those numbers at this point."

All that said, Ichiro still believes his team has a chance to win the division, if the right approach is taken.

"For a team that's not going good, the order is wrong, to look at the [2 1/2]," he said. "We need to take care of other things and then look at the number. That actually is related to the root thing I was talking about earlier."

Ichiro believes his .343 batting average with six home runs, 31 RBIs and 27 stolen bases is the product of a new approach. Instead of beginning his pregame stretching and warmup with his teammates some three hours before gametime, Ichiro gets cranking much earlier.

"My approach changes every year, because every year, mentally and physically I change," he said. "I guess the thing I can bring up right now is by the time the team is stretching, I'm already ready to play. I've brought myself, mentally and physically, to be ready to play at that point. I run, throw, stretch, bat, do everything. The amount of running and throwing, I've increased that amount, and in past years I actually have not thrown, but now I do.

"I concentrate, then I have time for me to relax. Then I go back to concentrating. That way, I'm able to control that, because humans are not able to concentrate the entire time."

A new level of concentration, especially on hitting to all fields, has helped Lopez, 22, reach his first All-Star Game.

Last year, Lopez underwent surgery to repair a fractured left hamate bone and twice was optioned to the Minors as the Mariners hammered him to use the entire field offensively. As rough as the season was, third base coach Carlos Garcia -- an All-Star Game participant in 1994 with the Pirates, at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium -- explained to him the possibilities of sunnier days.

"It started in the beginning of the season," Lopez said in Spanish through a translator. "He said if you work hard and you do the work, you'll be able to get to where you need to get to as a player."

Lopez realized his All-Star dreams by batting .280 with nine home runs and 58 RBIs. But to even get to that point, he had to beat out a former All-Star that the Mariners signed during Spring Training to push him.

"I didn't feel bad that they signed Fernando Vina," Lopez said. "I knew that I would have to do the work in order to get a starting spot, and it paid off."

Lopez's development is a prime example of development from the roots up, something Ichiro, the leadoff man and club leader would like to see more with the Mariners.