In Kansas City, on a night that felt more like a sauna than a ballpark, Cal Raleigh decided to play a little game of “anything you can do, I can do better.” His opponents? Just a couple of guys named Mickey Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr. No big deal, right?
Raleigh, affectionately known as “Big Dumper” to the Mariners faithful, didn’t just knock on history’s door; he took a battering ram to it. In the span of two innings, he launched his 55th and 56th home runs of the season, etching his name into the baseball pantheon.
How Raleigh Made History
First, let’s talk about Mantle. “The Mick,” a certified legend and arguably the greatest switch-hitter ever, set the single-season home run record for a switch-hitter back in 1961 with 54 dingers. It was a record that stood for over six decades, a testament to its difficulty.
Then came Raleigh. In the third inning, batting left-handed against a hanging curveball from the Royals’ Michael Wacha, he sent a 419-foot missile screaming into the right-field seats. Boom. Record broken. Just like that, a number that had been sacred for 63 years belonged to the 28-year-old catcher from Seattle.
But why stop there? An inning later, Raleigh stepped up to the plate from the right side to face lefty Daniel Lynch IV. On the very first pitch, he absolutely tattooed a baseball 425 feet to dead center. That blast tied him with “The Kid,” Ken Griffey Jr., for the most home runs in a single season in Mariners franchise history. To put that in perspective, he tied a record set by a guy who has his own statue outside the ballpark.
The MVP Case For Cal Raleigh
This wasn’t just a fun night for the statisticians; it was a thunderous statement in the American League MVP race. These two homers gave Raleigh a commanding lead in both home runs (56) and RBI (118) in the AL. The man is not just hitting for power; he’s driving in runs and carrying his team toward a potential division title.
Let’s not forget the absurdity of it all. He hit these two historic homers from both sides of the plate in the same game. That’s a party trick most players can only dream of. For Raleigh, it was the fifth time he’s done it in his career. The man is a walking, talking, dinger-mashing anomaly.
As the Mariners chase their 10th straight win, their catcher is chasing ghosts. With 11 games left, he needs just one more homer to own the Mariners’ record outright and six more to match Aaron Judge’s AL record of 62. At this point, would anyone be brave enough to bet against him?
