Nelson Cruz enters the weekend on a streak of six homers in his past five games, including at least one HR in each of those games.
He is the fifth player in Mariners history with homers in at least five straight games. Jay Buhner did it twice. Only one player extended his streak beyond five games. That was Ken Griffey Jr., who had an eight-game streak from July 20-28, 1993. Griffey shares the major-league record with Dale Long (Pittsburgh, 1956) and Don Mattingly (New York Yankees, 1987)
Cruz has the Mariners’ first five-game homer streak in nearly 15 years and the first since the club moved into Safeco Field — although all six of his home runs came on the just-completed road trip.
The other five game streaks:
— Richie Zisk: April 24-28, 1981.
— Buhner: Sept. 9-13, 1995.
— Buhner: May 15-21, 1996.
— Alex Rodriguez: Aug. 11-16, 1999.
— Cruz’s six homers also match the franchise record for the most HRs through the season’s first nine games. Three others did it: Jim Presley in 1985, Griffey in 1997 and Mike Morse in 2013.
Looking back
It was three years ago Friday — April 17, 2012 — that the Mariners reached two milestones in a crushing 9-8 loss to the Cleveland Indians at Safeco Field.
They recorded the 25,000th run in franchise history when Justin Smoak scored in the fourth inning. They also got the 50,000th hit in franchise history on a single by Kyle Seager.
But the Mariners also blew an 8-1 lead when the Indians scored seven runs in the fifth inning and another run in the seventh.
Short hops
Seager enters the weekend with hits in seven straight games. … Cruz is 9-for-19 since opening the season in a 1-for-15 slump, … The Mariners are 0-6 in night games. …The Mariners have scored 21 of their 32 runs on home runs.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
