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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Seattle Mariners desperately wanted to go into the All-Star break with a winning record.Robinson Cano and Adam Lind homered in a five-run seventh inning and the Mariners held off the Kansas City Royals 8-5 on Sunday.Canos two-run shot to deep right field for his 21st home run of the season extended the Mariners lead to 5-0. Lind hit a three-run shot, his 13th, a few batters later.A lot of good at-bats, Seattle manager Scott Servais said. Guys were grinding. Definitely want to go to the break above .500. It was an important game for us today.The Mariners (45-44) head into the break above .500 for the second time since 2010, after going 51-44 in 2014.The Royals scored five runs over the final three innings, pulling within three on Alex Gordons homer leading off the ninth.Mike Montgomery (3-3) pitched 6 1/3 strong innings, giving up one run and five hits, in his first start of the season.Dillion Gee (3-3) struggled early and picked up the loss for the Royals, giving up three runs and five hits in 3 2/3 innings.One of the key moments in Gees rough outing occurred in the first inning where an errant throw on a double play opportunity eventually led to Seattles first score.I kinda got caught in between when I came up to take a look at second, Gee said. It was right when the umpire was kinda like, making his way into position and I tried to slow up a little bit and it sailed on me. Just a costly mistakeBrett Eibner had three hits, including his third homer of the season in the seventh and an RBI single in the Royals three-run eighth.Despite the loss, the Royals went into the All-Star break with a winning record for the third straight season at 45-42.Kyle Seager had a two-run single in the first, and Ketel Marte added a run-scoring single in the fourth to give the Mariners a 3-0 lead.Marte finished the game with two hits in four at bats to go along with that run scoring single in the fourth inning.You know, see the ball, see the ball. If I feel good, I know Ill get on base. Marte said. I know Ive got the talent. I know I can hit. You know, Im trying to come back and give a hundred percent every day and see what happens after.Kendrys Morales bases-loaded walk pulled the Royals to 8-2 in the eighth, and Cheslor Cuthbert capped the three-run inning with a sacrifice fly.MASHING MARINERSSeattles two homers pushed it into second by themselves with a team total of 132 home runs on the season. ... Cano will compete in the 2016 Home Run Derby on Monday at Petco Park. He is the first Mariner to compete in the contest since Bret Boone in 2003. This is Canos first Derby since 2013 when he was with the New York Yankees.ROYALS AT THE ESPYSAfter the All-Star Game on Tuesday, Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez will attend the 2016 ESPYs on Wednesday night in Los Angeles. Kansas City is nominated for Best Team and manger Ned Yost is nominated for Best Coach/Manager. This will be Perez first trip to the ESPYs. Yeah, its cool. The All-Star Game is a special moment, theres a lot of top players there-a lot of All Stars. As for the ESPYs, this is my first time going so thats pretty good for us.UP NEXTFollowing the All Star break, the Royals travel to Detroit to face the Tigers in a three game series then come back home for a nine game homestead against Cleveland, Texas and Los Angeles. The Mariners return from the break for two series at home then will hit the road for the rest of July to face Toronto, Pittsburgh and Chicago. Custom Spurs Jersey China . Brazilian national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has confirmed that the veteran goalkeeper is set to join Toronto on loan, saying it will help him be ready for the World Cup. Sean Elliott Jersey Large . The Celtics closed out their first preseason under Stevens on Wednesday night with a 101-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, who rested a lot of their lineup including former Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. http://www.customspursjersey.com/ . -- Its been a long road back for Sean Bergenheim. Custom Spurs Jerseys . But Bourque, who has missed three games with a lower-body injury, wont be in the lineup when the Habs travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Wednesday. Cheap Spurs Jerseys . LOUIS -- Attorneys for the St. SAN DIEGO -- Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledged the games rising home run numbers Tuesday, but he expressed confidence that they arent a product of juiced players or juiced baseballs.Each MLB team is averaging 1.16 home runs per game this season -- the highest home run rate since the average of 1.17 per game during the height of the steroid era in 2000. The home run rate, which ebbed at 0.86 per game in 2014, began to spike during the second half of last season, but Manfred said MLB has no reason to think the rising power numbers are a product of increased steroid use.The increase in the number of home runs takes place against a different backdrop, Manfred said in his annual All-Star Game session with the Baseball Writers Association of America. Major League Baseball does 22,000 drug tests a year. The World Anti-Doping Agency says we have one of the best testing programs in the world, let alone in professional sports. Our investigative capacity in the area of performance-enhancing drugs is probably the best in the world. So Im much less concerned that this is due to [PEDs].We think it has to do with the way pitchers pitch and the way hitters are being taught to play the game. Youve seen some unusual developments in terms of home run hitters being up in the lineup to get them more at-bats. So we think it has more to do with the game this time around, beccause were comfortable were doing everything we can on the performance-enhancing drugs front.ddddddddddddSince January, 70 players (13 big leaguers and 57 minor leaguers) have been suspended for violations of baseballs joint drug testing agreement. Several active players -- most notably, pitchers Justin Verlander and Jeremy Guthrie and outfielder Jeff Francoeur -- have pushed for stiffer penalties as a disincentive to players who might use PEDs.Manfred also discounted the theory that changes in the baseball used by MLB might be contributing to the rising power numbers. He said MLB has done extensive testing on the baseballs and found no changes.In 2013, Nippon Professional Baseball commissioner Ryozo Kato resigned amid a scandal over livelier baseballs in Japan. The scandal broke after Wladimir Balentien of the Yakult Swallows hit 60 homers to break the record of 55 shared by Sadaharu Oh, Alex Cabrera and Tuffy Rhodes.There are certain mistakes in life that if you pay attention to whats going on around you, you are not inclined to make, Manfred said. There was a scandal in Japan over the baseball being changed that cost the commissioner his job. I like my current gig, so I think you can rest assured that the baseball is the same as it was last year. ' ' '