SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners returned to the Pacific Northwest for the first of a four-game series against the Houston Astros, beginning at 6:40 p.m. PT on Friday at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

Before the Mariners took on their American League West archrivals, the team had a ceremony honoring one of the best players in franchise history.

Seattle revealed its statue for Hall of Fame outfielder Ichiro Suzuki at 11:30 a.m. PT on Friday. The ceremony was the latest in a series of events honoring Suzuki.

The former American League MVP was one vote away from being just the second-ever unanimous inductee into the National Baseball Hall of Fame last year. Following his enshrinement into Cooperstown, N.Y., the Mariners retired Suzuki's No. 51 in July, joining fellow M's Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr. (No. 24) and Edgar Martinez (No. 11) and baseball trailblazer Jackie Robinson (No. 42) as the only players to have their numbers retired by the organization.

Suzuki won his only career MVP award and the AL Rookie of the Year award in his first year stateside in 2001 after a nine-season stint with the Orix BlueWave in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He was a 10-time All-Star, 10-time Gold Glove winner, three-time Silver Slugger winner, two-time AL batting champion and one-time AL stolen base leader.

Suzuki's statue reveal didn't go as smoothly as his number retirement or Hall of Fame induction.

Suzuki's statue bears resemblance to his iconic batting stance setup, in which he pulls his right sleeve while holding outstretched in front of his body.

When the tarp covering the statue was pulled Friday, the bat cracked.

Fans on social media instantly analogized the broken bat to the current team's season. The Mariners are currently 4-9, losers of five straight games and are coming off a three-game sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers.

However, in a glass-half-full aspect of the whole situation (current team included), the bat was quickly fixed.

Seattle is set to give away replica Suzuki statues for the first 40,000 fans in attendance at Friday's game. And the M's social media team had a humorous response to the broken bat snafu.

The fully intact Suzuki statue is fixed just several feet away from Martinez's, giving an impressive visual of two Hall of Famers standing guard outside T-Mobile Park.

The Mariners will have Emerson Hancock start at pitcher in hopes of snapping the current squad's losing streak. Tatsuya Imai will start for the Astros.

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