KANSAS CITY -- On the same night Cal Raleigh passed Mickey Mantle for the most home runs in a single season by a switch-hitter, Big Dumper joined a franchise legend one swing later.
Raleigh clobbered his 55th and 56th home runs of the season in the Mariners’ 12-5 win over the Royals on Thursday at Kauffman Stadium, passing Mantle (1961) for the switch-hitter lead before matching Ken Griffey Jr. (56 in both 1997, ‘98) for the most in a single season in Mariners franchise history.
Seattle (83-68) won its 10th straight game and moved one game ahead of Houston (82-69) for the AL West lead, pending the Astros’ result against the Rangers (79-72) on Tuesday. The Mariners are also only two games behind the Tigers (85-66) for the second-best record in the AL, which earns a bye during the Wild Card round.
The best part of Raleigh’s night? His third- and fourth-inning homers came from each side of the plate. Raleigh has gone yard from both sides of the box in the same game five times in his career and twice this season (April 16 at Cincinnati). Outside of Raleigh, there have only been five instances -- by five different players -- of a Mariner homering from both sides of the plate in the same game.
Raleigh’s quest for his first American League MVP Award reached yet another level as the 28-year-old catcher extended his AL lead in homers (56) and RBIs (118) with his 10th multihomer game of the season. Raleigh needs six homers in the final 11 games to match Aaron Judge (62, 2022) for the most homers in a single season in American League history.
Raleigh passed Mantle with a 419-foot blast down the right-field line on a hanging curveball from the Royals’ Michael Wacha before matching Griffey Jr. by belting a 425-foot laser over the center-field wall.
Big Dumper needs just one more home run to break a franchise record and begin his quest towards 60 home runs, which has only been done nine times by six different players (Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire (twice), Sammy Sosa (three times), Judge, Rogers Maris and Babe Ruth).
Raleigh also has 45 homers this year when playing catcher, which was already the most in a season in MLB history.
Raleigh finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs and a season-high 10 total bases. But Dominic Canzone had the biggest night at the plate, going 5-for-5 with three homers -- becoming just the second Mariner with five hits and three homers in the same game after Mickey Brantley did so on Sept. 14, 1987.