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. Cheap Vapormax China . -- Derrick Rose shook off poor shooting early to hit clutch shots late and Carlos Boozer had 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 104-95 preseason victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. Nike Air VaporMax Black+Anthracite . "I wrote 36 on my sheet at the beginning of the game," the Cincinnati coach said, referring the yard line the ball would need to be snapped from. http://www.clearancevapormax.com/cheap-vapormax-2019-clearance.html . Its sharpness matched my mind. This was no night to go to sleep. Wholesale Vapormax Womens . MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez also will attend the session, which was announced Monday. The league has discussed placing its next two expansion teams in Miami and Atlanta. Vapormax 3 Clearance . P.A. Parenteau scored early in the third period to help the Avs edge Toronto 2-1 on Tuesday night. Cory Sarich also scored for Colorado (3-0-0), which is off to its best ever start. Faf du Plessis has encouraged fans to relax when considering South Africas transformation policy, now that the team has showed they can win with it in place. Since the targets - which require the national team to field a minimum of six players of colour on an average, including two black Africans over the course of a season - were announced in early September , South Africa have played six ODIs and won all of them, while also nearly meeting their transformation requirements.Across the ODIs - one against Ireland and five against Australia - South Africas average was just under their target of six players of colour, and they fielded at least two black Africans in every game. Their XI included seven players of colour against Ireland, with four black Africans, five players of colour in three of the five ODIs against Australia, and six in the other two. They will have the opportunity to make up for the shortfall in later matches this season.People will relax now and see that its not that bad. People were expecting big changes and big defeats, but now, people can relax and see there is enough talent, no matter what colour you are, du Plessis said. Our cricket is in a healthy state. People can be confident that even with those targets, we are a force to be reckoned with.One of the concerns with implementing the targets was that it would affect the balance of the team, but JP Duminys return to form, and the unearthing of Andile Phehlukwayo and Tabraiz Shamsi have meant that South Africa had all bases covered in the series. Perhaps, reassuringly, while the players of colour proved themselves in this series, there was also enough room for white players, too, to show their worth. Phehlukwayo, in his first international series, was the leading wicket-taker, Duminy returned to form with two important half-centuries, and Shamsi is putting his hand up as a successor to Imran Tahir. Rilee Rossouw, previously on the fringes of the side, and David Miller, who had been dropped, also had stand-out showings in a series in which South Africas inclusivity did not go unnoticed.Du Plessis confirmed the team has embraced the transformation targets, especially now that the specifics are in the public domain. We try and embrace it. The positive is that it is open and there is a honest policy out there. Everyone knows what iits all about and everyone can buy into it.dddddddddddd. As long as you are open and honest, you can move forward, he said.Prior to September, South Africa insisted there were no targets at the national level, although they unofficially aimed to include four players of colour in an XI. That was evident at the 2015 World Cup when Vernon Philander was brought into the team in place of Kyle Abbott despite missing large swathes of the tournament due to injury. This happened after the coach and captain met with the CEO, who reminded them to pick the best team with transformation guidelines in mind. The fall-out from that incident hung over South African cricket for many months, during which performances slipped.Last summer, South Africa tumbled from No.1 to No.6 in the Test rankings, were booted out of the World T20 in the first round, and appeared a spent force. Pressure grew on coach Russell Domingo, whose contract is in place until April next year, and it was expected he would be replaced. However, a team culture camp before this series rejuvenated the players and coaches, and du Plessis credited Domingo for his resilience at a tough time.As a squad, we made a huge transition when we went away and had a hard look at ourselves, and the coaches were part of it. They were really eager to try and improve themselves, and since that day, they have been brilliant. Russell has stepped his game up, he is challenging people and players now, and the coaching staff are demanding more from players, du Plessis said. Its important we dont take that for granted because we have an extremely tough Test tour of Australia coming up. I accept that we wont win every series, but its important for us to know what we need to do to be at our best. Russell has been really good. There was a lot of pressure on them after the West Indies tri-series and thats normal. You get that when a team doesnt perform, but full credit must go to him for how he has stepped up.South Africa will shift from limited-overs to Tests and will play six in succession - three in Australia and three at home against Sri Lanka - in a bid to climb up the rankings again. The first Test in Australia starts on November 3 in Perth. ' ' '