Mariners notebook: Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz banged up but pressing on

The Mariners have one All-Star in Nelson Cruz and a potential late addition in Robinson Cano, but neither are 100 percent as next week’s break approaches.

Cruz missed time last weekend with a knee injury suffered on a slide into second base, and that wasn’t far removed from a calf injury that bothered him earlier last month. It’s been very apparent when the 36-year-old slugger has been on base in recent days that he is far from healthy, especially on a hit off the wall in Wednesday night’s loss to Kansas City in which he was thrown out trying to get into second base.

Manager Scott Servais is appreciative that Cruz is playing through the pain to keep his bat in the lineup.

“He’s able to get out there and play and I certainly appreciate the effort and the toughness. He is trying to grind it out,” Servais said. “He did say today when he came in that it does feel a little bit better today than it did yesterday. … He’s managing it best he can and I appreciate him doing everything he can to get on the field. We know that it’s a deficiency when he is on the bases, but we’re taking the good over the bad right now and the good is him in the batter’s box.”

Cano, who could get a call to join the American League team in Miami for Tuesday’s All-Star Game as an injury replacement, is still feeling the effects of a quad injury that required a stint on the disabled list in May. Servais said it was the reason why he didn’t run at full speed on the final out of Wednesday’s loss.

“I know he tweaked the quad a little bit yesterday on the last at-bat coming out of the box,” Servais said. “I assume he’s good to go tonight. It may not be 100 percent.”

Notes

• Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto provided an update on “Danny, Dave and Moore” on the status of right-handed pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma’s shoulder, though Iwakuma’s immediate future is still uncertain. “We’re gonna be patient with him. We understand he’s thrown a lot of innings,” Dipoto said. “If he can come back and contribute to this team, he will. There’s no doubt in my mind about that, but obviously prior to his injury we weren’t seeing dynamic stuff. … When we get him back, we want as close to 100 percent as he can be, and if that happens this year, great. If not, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” The Mariners announced earlier in the week that Iwakuma has been shut down from throwing activities for the time being.

• You can find the entire lineups for Thursday’s series opener between the Mariners and A’s at 7:10 on 710 ESPN Seattle in this post.

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