SEATTLE -- Cal Raleigh's historic season reached its most monumental milestone yet on Sunday afternoon in the Mariners' 11-4 win over the A's, as the catcher crushed his 48th homer that tied him with Salvador Perez in 2021 for the most in a single season for a player with at least 75% of games as a catcher. Then for good measure, he upped the ante with his 49th one inning later.
And, perhaps fittingly, they were among his most majestic yet.
In the first inning, Raleigh ambushed a 91.7 mph, middle-middle fastball from A’s lefty Jacob Lopez and sent it sailing 448 feet -- his longest of the season and the longest of his career from the right side -- and into the second deck at T-Mobile Park, giving Seattle a much-needed lead for its scuffling offense.
Then in the second, he jumped on a first-pitch changeup from Lopez and yanked it 412 feet, off the out-of-town scoreboard in left. Both were two-run shots to back good friend Logan Gilbert on the mound, who was just as vital to the Mariners’ victory, with a career-high 13 strikeouts over six innings of one-run, three-hit ball.
Coupled with Houston’s loss in Baltimore earlier Sunday, Seattle pulled back to within two games of first place in the American League West.
“I'd say the hardest part is just trying to stay focused on the main goal, and that's winning baseball games and helping this team get to where we need to get to,” Raleigh said. “And obviously, doing this stuff has been awesome and amazing, but at the same time it's more focusing on the other guys in that room, focusing on the pitchers, focusing on the team goals, rather than myself.”
After Raleigh’s second moonshot, as the “MVP” chants were as audible as they’ve been all season, he emerged for a curtain call and tipped his helmet to the home crowd.
“I didn't know that'd be a thing,” Raleigh said. “They were kind of pushing me out there, and I was like, 'I don't want to look dumb if I go out there,' but it was really cool to see everybody up on their feet. A special moment.”
Sunday’s homers were Raleigh’s 39th and 40th while starting behind the plate, while he has nine more as a designated hitter. Perez, the Royals icon, had 33 in games played as a catcher in his historic season and another 15 at DH.
The overall record for most homers in a single season by a primary catcher while playing catcher is 42, set by Atlanta’s Javy Lopez in 2003. Only three others -- the Mets’ Todd Hundley in 1996, the Dodgers’ Roy Campanella in 1953 and Mike Piazza in 1997 with the Dodgers and 1999 with the Mets -- have reached 40 in games played behind the dish in a single season.
The next big milestone for Raleigh to clear will be the single-season home-run record by a switch-hitter, which is 54 from Mickey Mantle in 1961. Raleigh passed Mantle in another way on Sunday, though, by registering his ninth multi-homer game as a switch-hitter, and the overall record is 11, done thrice. He also passed Ken Griffey Jr. (1997) for most multi-homer games in a season in Mariners history.
“He's starting to set a bar that's equal to nobody else that's done this,” said Mariners manager Dan Wilson, who’s been longtime mentor to Raleigh since he was drafted in 2018. “And that's the newsworthy part of this thing is it's getting to a point where you can't compare him to anybody.”
Raleigh is within Griffey’s range for a separate and more significant record, too: the most homers in a single season in franchise history -- 56, done in 1997 and ‘98. Yet, while Griffey led the AL in homers in both of those seasons, he finished behind Mark McGwire (58) in ‘97 and McGwire (70) and Sammy Sosa (66) in ‘98 for the MLB lead.
Raleigh has the chance to become the first Mariners hitter to pace The Show in long balls, and if he does, there’s a strong chance he could join Griffey (1997) and Ichiro Suzuki (2001) as the only Mariners to win AL MVP.
Raleigh has firmly been in the hunt for the top individual honor in what’s largely been a two-man race with Yankees star and two-time winner Aaron Judge, though the Mariners will almost certainly need to reach the postseason for Raleigh to win.
“Just not trying to focus on myself,” Raleigh said, “not trying to put too much pressure on myself, not trying to chase anything, not trying to hit any kind of certain milestone. So I think that's kind of been the biggest thing -- just trying to keep those distractions away.”
It’s been a season of two halves for Raleigh, whose 38 homers before the All-Star break were the most in history other than Barry Bonds (39 in 2001), but who has scuffled some since his epic showing at the Midsummer Classic in Atlanta, where he won the Home Run Derby. Entering Sunday, he was hitting .202 with a .709 OPS, compared to .259 with a 1.011 OPS prior.
And he’s been particularly susceptible vs. lefty pitching of late -- as have the Mariners on a whole -- with a .143 batting average and .443 OPS against southpaws in the second half.
Which made Sunday’s turnaround -- for Raleigh, Gilbert and the Mariners, who’d lost eight of their previous 11 -- that much sweeter.