Nelson Cruz hit 14 home runs in a month. He lent a bat, lovingly called a "boomstick", to Logan Morrison, who was batting .149 at the time, and he hit three home runs in four days.
Cruz's bats run 35 inches, 33 ounces, larger than Morrison's usual bats by an inch and two ounces but, then, larger than most.
"That's huge, man," said teammate Brad Miller. "Just huge."
Morrison nodded.
"I've never used a bat that heavy before," said Morrison, who goes 6-foot-2, 240 pounds and seems bigger.
After a month in which he'd out-homered all of the Chicago White Sox and matched all of the Philadelphia Phillies, Cruz thought back over the month, shrugged and said he thought maybe he'd been consistent, that he hadn't missed too many hittable pitches and that he'd been, you know, pretty healthy, all very low key, like he'd rather have been mourning the exactly 419 pitches he hadn't hit for home runs.
"Um, I guess you see pitches," he said. "You don't foul them off. You square those pitches."
He does hit the ball hard. He did hit 40 home runs for the Baltimore Orioles last season and he does have a .281 batting average, 54 home runs and 134 RBI in 716 at-bats for the Orioles and Seattle Mariners since returning from his 50-game Biogenesis suspension. Maybe there's something to that, to living with the embarrassment for six or seven months and then returning to find the free-agent market would not be particularly kind. At a time when offenses all over the league are dying, Cruz is practically a one-man counterpoint.
"I think I'm still learning," said Cruz, who will be 35 in two months. "I started at a late age. Some people take more time."
Hug it out
Brad Dickson of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, on the underwhelming Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight: "It was sort of like the NFL Draft, only with even more hugging."
Limits
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers apparently wrote a clause into quarterback Jameis Winston's rookie contract that prohibits him from playing professional baseball.
From Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com: "Which means Jameis could still try out for the Phillies."
One bad hole
Justin Thomas, now 22, was competing in the Junior Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., when he took a 10 on the island green 17th hole. His first two shots did not go in the water. He was never in a bunker.
How did that happen?
Thomas hit his first shot over the green and onto the walkway. He stubbed his chip and it came back to where he was. His chipped again through the green and into the water. He took a penalty shot and dropped it in the previous spot and chipped that one through the green and into the water. This time, he went to the drop area, hit the green and, for good measure, three-putted.
"I went from a tie for sixth ... to not a tie for sixth," Thomas said.
Sports quiz
Nelson Cruz broke into the major leagues in 2005 playing for this team?
Sports answer
The Milwaukee Brewers
Sports on 05/07/2015