Mariners muscling up in home run department

ANAHEIM — A funny thing happened with a Mariners team being built more toward speed and defense this season. Despite the emphasis of general manager Jerry Dipoto’s offseason additions, the club keeps hitting home runs.

Heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Angels, the Mariners had 199 homers on the season, already the most of any Seattle team since the club played its first full season at Safeco Field in 2000.

With 18 games remaining, the Mariners are fourth in the Majors in home runs and have really turned up the offensive heat in September, leading the Majors in scoring with 79 runs while hitting .308 with 20 home runs and a .519 slugging percentage in their first 11 games of the month while powering back into the postseason hunt.

“It wasn’t what we set out to do when the whole thing was put together,” manager Scott Servais acknowledged. “It was to be more athletic, create more opportunities, control the strike zone and get on base. But along the way, we got production.”

Slugger Nelson Cruz again leads the club with 35 long balls, but he’s had plenty of help. Robinson Cano has already equaled his career-high with 33 homers, Kyle Seager has exceeded his career best with 28, and Adam Lind is at 20.

Add in a career-best 14 from Leonys Martin, another 14 from Franklin Gutierrez and Dae-Ho Lee, 13 from Seth Smith and 11 from midseason addition Mike Zunino …

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