The summer of Cal Raleigh continues to amaze, and the way things are going it’s going to continue right into October.
The Seattle Mariners catcher first broke the record for single-season home runs by a switch hitter then pulled even with Ken Griffey Jr. for the franchise record for single-season homers by blasting two in their 12-5 win over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium.
Raleigh socked Nos. 55 and 56 as part of a 3 for 5 night where he scored three runs and boosted his AL-leading RBI total to 118. His record-breaking night also overshadowed one from Dominic Canzone, who went 5 for 5 with three homers and four runs scored.
The Mariners (83-68) won their 10th straight and remained one game ahead of the Houston Astros, who defeated the Texas Rangers for the second straight night, atop the American League West with 11 games left.
What Did Cal Raleigh Do Tuesday?
The unassuming budding superstar catcher — who is arguably more famous for his nickname “Big Dumper” than anything else — is approaching some rarified air in the annals of big-league history.
Mickey Mantle’s single-season, switch-hitting homer record stood for 64 years, since the Hall of Fame outfielder finished second in the AL behind Roger Maris’ former big-league record of 61 homers in the record-breaking year of 1961.
Yet, by smoking a curveball 419 feet while leading off the top of the third inning, Raleigh surpassed the New York Yankees icon. But one inning later, he pulled even with arguably the most famous Mariners player ever by carrying the first pitch he saw 425 feet to dead-center field for a two-run shot for his 56th of the year that made it 9-0.
It was the fifth time Raleigh homered from both sides of the plate and second this year.
Can Cal Raleigh Hit 63 Home Runs?
Griffey effectively put pro baseball on the map in the Pacific Northwest and is the favorite player of an entire generation of fans both in Seattle and across the country. So that Raleigh could pull even with Griffey’s career-high total of 56, which he set in back-to-back years in 1997 and 1998, tells you the kind of year he is having.
Yet, Raleigh’s sights will now move onto passing Griffey for the Mariners’ single-season home run record.
But with only 11 games left, he is running out of time to hit the magic number of 60 homers then would need three more to surpass Aaron Judge‘s American League record of 62 blasts set in 2022.
Judge, who won the first of his two AL MVP awards by breaking Maris’ then-61-year-old record for AL home runs, hit his 62nd homer in the Yankees’ final game of the season in Texas in 2022.
But Raleigh now has three homers in his past two games, which means he could be gearing up for one late charge at Judge, Maris and Babe Ruth, who of course hit 60 homers for the Yankees in 1927.
Four home runs in Raleigh’s final 11 games would make him just the seventh player in major-league history to reach 60 homers in a single season — Judge, Maris, Ruth, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire were the previous six.
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