NEW YORK -- Mariners manager Dan Wilson played with Ken Griffey Jr. for six years when both were in Seattle during the 1990s. Griffey was the man in the Emerald City -- and he could do it all, from hitting monster home runs to making acrobatic catches in center field.
One franchise record that Griffey had for 26 years was hitting the most home runs (35) before the All-Star break. Wilson thought that record would never be broken.
“You don’t think about that [because of] the way [Griffey] could hit homers,” Wilson said.
But records are made to be broken, and catcher Cal Raleigh made his mark during the Mariners’ 10-3 loss to the Yankees on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. He hit his 36th homer of the season in the eighth inning off Yankees right-hander Geoff Hartlieb, breaking Griffey‘s 1998 record.
“Obviously, not the result we wanted to get tonight,” Raleigh said about the loss. “It’s frustrating, but [the record] is a cool thing to accomplish. [Griffey] is a great player and I tried to do my part.”
Seattle was down, 10-1, in the top of the eighth inning when Raleigh swung at a 1-1 pitch and hit the ball into the second deck in right field. Raleigh's 36 home runs are the most in the Majors, two ahead of Aaron Judge, who hit his 34th homer in the seventh inning off reliever Casey Legumina.
Raleigh is having the best season of his career. Besides leading the Majors in homers, Raleigh leads the American League in RBIs (76) and has a slash line of .268/.383/.646. He's giving Judge some competition in the American League MVP race.
What’s different this year for Raleigh?
He has always hit in the clutch -- remember the playoff-clinching home run in 2022? -- but he was never a consistent hitter. Now he finds himself in good counts, gets good pitches to hit and he is not missing them.
“I’m trying to get better, trying to improve myself,” Raleigh said. “You try to learn who you are as a hitter. It’s something I made a point to do from both sides of the plate. I try to be a better overall hitter. I try to take my hits when I get them. I’m not just trying to be a power guy.”
Raleigh’s accomplishment was about the only highlight of the night for Seattle. Prior to Tuesday, the Mariners’ starting pitching had been money of late, tossing 28 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings dating to last Wednesday.
Now, it was Logan Gilbert’s turn to shine. Gilbert had been a bit shaky since coming off the injured list on June 16, having allowed 11 earned runs in 20 innings (4.95 ERA) over four starts entering Tuesday.
Gilbert's start against the Yankees was a tale of two outings. He had his way early, cruising through four scoreless innings before the tarp came out in the top of the fifth.
Gilbert came back following the 35-minute rain delay and allowed one run in the bottom of the fifth before getting hit hard in the sixth, when he allowed four runs. The biggest blow came on a three-run homer by Giancarlo Stanton. Gilbert left the game after allowing a double to Paul Goldschmidt, who later scored after Legumina allowed a two-run homer to Austin Wells. Legumina, himself, ended up allowing five runs in just one inning.
“It was a tough one tonight. The Yankees [hit] several homers and it broke the game open,” Wilson said. “I thought Logan threw the ball well early on. He was pretty dominant. They were able to get him there with [the] Stanton [homer].”
Seattle didn’t do anything offensively until the top of the eighth inning, when Julio Rodríguez hit an RBI double and Raleigh added the two-run dinger.
“Hopefully, we take that into tomorrow’s ballgame. Julio hit that ball hard in the gap, and then Cal with No. 36," Wilson said. "Congratulations to Cal. Another record for him to set the pace for the Mariners. A couple of positives toward the end and [hopefully] take that into tomorrow."