Nelson Cruz putting a rare charge into Mariners, Safeco Field Mariners outfielder Nelson Cruz is among the major league leaders with 14 home runs, 27 RBI, a .738 slugging percentage and 1.132 OPS despite the difficulty power hitters face at Seattle's Safeco Field.

Bob Nightengale | USA TODAY Sports

SEATTLE -- This is baseball's version of Death Valley.

The haunted stories of power hitters, most of them right-handed, are everywhere at Safeco Field. Adrian Beltre's Hall of Fame-caliber career was nearly derailed in these parts. Richie Sexson's power disappeared.

The names and faces all changed through the years, but since the departure of Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez, and the gradual decline of the 116-win, 2001 Mariners, the place has been a graveyard for hitters.

It cost the Seattle Mariners $240 million to lure Robinson Cano to Seattle, and after averaging nearly 29 homers a year his last five seasons with the New York Yankees, he managed 14 in his first full season in Seattle.

Now, comes along a man who defies all logic.

His name is Nelson Cruz.

And he's treating Safeco like his own PlayStation game.

Cruz showed no fear signing a four-year contract with the Mariners, and if you can believe it, actually told Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik and manager Lloyd McClendon that Safeco was his favorite place to hit.

Well, before you call him crazy, check out these numbers:

Cruz leads the major leagues with 15 home runs and a .738 slugging percentage and is second with 29 RBI and a 1.132 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage). Cruz, the first Mariners player to hit 10 or more homers in April since Griffey, leads the majors with 12 go-ahead RBI and seven game-winning hits and entered Tuesday with a .344 batting average.

He has obliterated left-handed pitchers to the tune of a 2.082 OPS and five home runs and has yet to strike out in 26 plate appearances against them.

Go ahead, you try telling Cruz he's not supposed to be putting up these numbers in Seattle.

"What can I say, I love hitting in this ballpark,'' Cruz told USA TODAY Sports. "We have such a great batter's eye here, and I see the ball good.

"This is where I wanted to come. I don't care about the numbers. I just wanted to be on a winning team, to be in the playoffs. I thought it would be nice to come here and bring joy to the fans.

"So it was easy to come here.''

Certainly, it didn't hurt getting $57 million for the first big payday of his career. Or that Cano, his close friend, put on a recruiting display that would put Alabama football coach Nick Saban and Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari to shame.

Yet after being in the postseason or in at least in a tiebreaking game the last five seasons, Cruz has been spoiled and wasn't about to spend the rest of his career on a team with unrealistic playoff hopes.

He has been a one-man force as the Mariners' right fielder, preventing Seattle from being buried in the early going and keeping their hopes alive that this is the end of their 14-year playoff drought, second-longest in baseball behind the Toronto Blue Jays.

With the rotation mostly sputtering behind the great Felix Hernandez, Seattle entered Tuesday's games 14-17, 5½ games out of first place in the American League West.

Cruz, 34, has done his part: He has nine more home runs and 11 more RBI than any other Mariner.

And it's not just the tangible contributions that have mattered.

"We all knew what kind of power hitter he is,'' McClendon says, "but I am blown away how good of a teammate he is. Just the way he interacts with his teammates. It's amazing how quick our chemistry has come together with this club, and a lot of it is because of Nelson Cruz.

"They fell in love with Nelson the first day he got here. It's been quite remarkable watching him and how his teammates took to him. He has the ability to make guys better in the clubhouse.''

Says Zduriencik, the Milwaukee Brewers scouting director when Cruz was there in 2005: "He's just a wonderful man. He's genuine, very sincere, conscientious, upbeat, jovial. Really, I can't say enough about him.

"Even the clubhouse guys rant and rave about him as a human being.''

On the field, he puts on a hitting clinic you don't want to miss. He hit a monstrous 483-foot home run in Texas one night, then hit the locomotive sitting high atop the railroad track above center field in Houston the next. The power is ridiculous.

"I've been in this game a long time,'' says McClendon, a 36-year veteran of professional baseball, "and he's hit some balls the hardest I've ever seen hit. He hits some vicious line drives. From foul pole to foul pole.

"I tell you what, everybody talks about how big our ballpark is, but he makes it small. When he hits them, they go out. There's just not a lot of hang time.''

Pardon the Mariners for being in complete awe, but they haven't had a 40-homer hitter since Rodriguez departed after the 2000 season. They scored 634 runs last year -- 33 fewer than the league average -- and failed to score more than 671 runs in a year since 2007, or hit 200 homers since 1999.

Amazing how one man can make such a difference, not only keeping the Mariners afloat in the AL West, but keeping their dream alive of their first World Series.

"I'm not surprised with what he's doing,'' Cano said. "He's such a power. I always wanted this guy on my team. He's a guy that works hard, always goes about his business and is a guy you want to have around you.

"He's an inspiration not only for myself and all of the younger guys on the field, but a great guy on and off the field.

"I love having him here. I'm seeing more strikes and fastballs than I've seen in years. He makes such a difference to everyone in the lineup.''

Cruz, of course, comes with flaws. He was suspended 50 games for his role in the Biogenesis scandal in 2013 and returned only in time for the Rangers to lose a one-game playoff. And yes, Rangers fans will never let him forget that line drive off David Freese's bat in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Cruz initially misjudged it, the ball went over his head, and the Rangers lost the World Series after being one strike away from the first title in franchise history.

"He got criticized a lot, but I don't blame him for any of it,'' Rangers pitcher Derek Holland told USA TODAY Sports. "It got brought up quite a bit. Haters are going to hate, and you still hear people say, 'Well, if Nelson would have dove, or this or that.' I know he was doing everything to get to the ball. He did everything he could. It just didn't go his way.

"We can sit here and talk about it all day, but we don't get to the World Series without him.''

Says Rangers pitcher Colby Lewis: "I felt like he did what any other player would have done. It was a reactionary play, and he just reacted to it. I never looked at it any other way. There was no fault. The outcome just didn't turn out the way we wanted it.

"It wasn't like he was just standing underneath the ball and dropped it, though. He had to turn and run on the ball. It was a super tough play.''

Cruz, who led the major leagues with 40 homers last season with the Orioles, refuses to hide from the blemishes. Sure, maybe he could have caught Freese's triple, but he never has been known as a gifted defender. The interaction with Biogenesis was a mistake, he says, and he was ready to fight it until being persuaded to accept the suspension.

He stands before you now a flawed ballplayer, but considering what he brings to the Mariners, a franchise starved for power, he just might be their savior.

"He was very honest, very open, very forthcoming when we talked about that,'' Zduriencik said of Cruz's suspension. "You know what? This is America. We move forward.

"We told him we'd treat him like family, and let's be honest, he's made it easy on everybody.''

Says Cruz: "My past, whether I did good or bad, I try to forget it. I've always been like that. You learn your lessons. You move on. That's what I've done.''

The Mariners, the preseason pick to win the AL West, still find themselves trailing the Houston Astros by 5½ games, but they're coming on, fresh off their first sweep of the Oakland Athletics in four years.

Finally, the Mariners have a power source they can plug into, energizing a dormant fan base that has lived off the neighboring Seahawks' exploits.

"All that matters is the playoffs,'' Cruz says. "It's all that should matter to anyone. f you get there, it doesn't matter what your individual numbers look like. And if you don't get there, who cares what your numbers look like.

"Winning takes care of everything.''

And a few dozen homers along the way sure don't hurt.

GALLERY: Celebrate baseball's walk-off wins