Whatever offense the Seattle Mariners had produced over the past month-plus entering Sunday’s game, most of it had been forged by that boomstick of a bat one 38-year-old named Nelson Cruz lumbers around.
The Mariners had struggled putting runners, on base, scoring them, hitting the ball hard, hitting the ball in the right places or just hitting it at all over this past month.
So that Cruz-Kyle Seager jump hug near the on-deck circle, as is customary when Cruz homers, meant just a little more in the seventh inning after Cruz’s boomstick broke, but still had enough to carry over the center field wall for a go-ahead two-run home run.