The last time that Cruz went more than a month between homers was 2011 when he had a 31-day drought late in the season, but he missed more than two weeks in that stretch because of a strained left hamstring.
***It’s a marquee pitching matchup: Felix Hernandez (3-2 with a 4.66 ERA) vs. Kansas City left-hander Danny Duffy (4-4, 3.54).
***Hernandez is 5-5 with a 2.76 ERA in 13 career starts against the Royals.
He made one start against them last season and pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings in a 1-0 victory at Safeco Field.
***Duffy is 0-1 in six career games against the Mariners but has a 2.01 ERA.
***The last rookie to be leading the American League in batting at the All-Star break was a guy named Mike Trout, who was batting .341 in 2012 for the Los Angeles Angels.
(The standard is 3.1 plate appearances times the number of games played by the club.
***This is the fourth time the Mariners and Royals have played on Independence Day.
The starting pitcher went at least six innings in all 10 games and seven or more innings in five of the 10 games.
Buhner had 22 two-homer games in his career.