SAN DIEGO — Some good news for the Seattle Mariners: Nelson Cruz is again positioned for duty as the American League’s starting designated hitter in the All-Star Game with a just few days left in the voting.
Cruz surged ahead of Kansas City’s Kendrys Morales by 204,905 votes in the latest balloting update released Monday by Major League Baseball. That represented a swing of 491,014 votes in Cruz’s favor over the past week.
All voting this season, for the first time, is being conducted online at www.mlb.com and the 30 club websites, including www.mariners.com. Voting continues through 8:59 p.m. Thursday.
Cruz is the only Seattle player cited in the final weekly release, which reported the top 15 outfielders and the top five players at all other positions.
The starting position players for both leagues will be announced at 4:30 p.m. Sunday on ESPN. The reserves, pitchers and the five Final Vote candidates will be revealed at 4 p.m. Monday on ESPN.
The Final Vote determines the final player for each league’s 34-player roster. An online vote chooses from five candidates in each league.
The leaders in the latest release:
American League: catcher Salvy Perez, Kansas City; first base Miguel Cabrera, Detroit; second base Omar Infante, Kansas City; shortstop Alcides Escobar, Kansas City; third base Josh Donaldson, Toronto; outfield Mike Trout, Los Angeles, and Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon, Kansas City; and Cruz.
National League: catcher Buster Posey, San Francisco; first base Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona; second base Dee Gordon, Miami; shortstop Jhonny Peralta, St. Louis; third base Matt Carpenter, St. Louis; and outfield Bryce Harper, Washington, Giancarlo Stanton, Miami, and Matt Holliday, St. Louis.
Minor details
OK, this is what the Mariners had in mind when they selected outfielder Alex Jackson with the sixth overall pick in the 2014 draft.
Jackson, 19, was batting .381 (8-for-21) over his previous six games for Short-A Everett going into Monday’s game against Boise. Over that stretch he had a .435 on-base percentage and a .524 slugging percentage.
The Mariners tried to accelerate Jackson’s development earlier this season by assigning him to Lo-A Clinton even though he was roughly 21/2 years younger than the average age for Midwest League players.
That didn’t work. Jackson batted .157 in 28 games and struck out 35 times in 108 at-bats. That prompted a remedial assignment to extended spring training in an effort to get him turned around.
Jackson is still ahead of the age curve at Everett. He is 1.9 years younger than the average age for players in the Northwest League.
The road back
Left-hander Anthony Fernandez, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, pitched four scoreless innings Monday for Double-A Jackson in its 4-0 victory at Birmingham. It was Fernandez’s first start since being activated from a rehab assignment at Rookie Peoria. He permitted one hit, struck out seven and walked one.
The Mariners viewed Fernandez, 25, as a rising prospect before he underwent reconstructive elbow surgery last May after making five starts at Tacoma.
Looking back
It was 20 years ago Tuesday — June 30, 1995 — that now-hitting coach Edgar Martinez closed out a phenomenal month by drawing three walks in a 10-2 loss to Texas at the Kingdome.
Martinez batted .402 over 28 games in June 1995 with nine doubles, eight homers and 32 RBI. He had a .537 on-base percentage and a .671 slugging percentage for a 1.297 OPS.
He was picked as the American League’s player of the month, one of five times he received that honor in his career. He also won in July and August 1992, May 2000 and May 2003.
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