Cal Raleigh crushes 40th homer, strengthens MVP case in Mariners' win

ANAHEIM, Calif. — No matter how the rest of the season played out, Cal Raleigh was almost assuredly going to be viewed as the runner-up when it came to the MVP race in the American League without something unforeseen taking place.

And when that unforeseen event happened early Saturday across the country with New York Yankees star Aaron Judge landing on the injured list, Raleigh immediately started adding to his case that maybe he should now be the MVP favorite.

Continuing to hit homers will clearly help.

It was when, not if, Raleigh would reach the 40-homer mark, but it arrived Saturday night in the sixth inning of what became a 7-2 Seattle Mariners victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

The swing came on a 2-0 pitch from Jose Fermin. Raleigh’s torpedo bat cracked with the same clean crispness as it has for most of the previous 39 homers he’s clubbed on this march to history. The ball traveled 416 feet and probably should be headed next for a display case somewhere considering the records it represented.

“As we’ve talked about all along, he’s just been so humble about it and there isn’t pressure,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said. “He doesn’t put more pressure on himself. He doesn’t wear it. But I’m sure it feels great to get to 40. I’m sure he wants to get to 41 as soon as possible because he knows it helps us win ballgames.”

More important to the M’s catcher, it snapped a 2-2 tie and sparked a four-run inning that allowed the Mariners to gain a game on Houston in the AL West standings after the Astros lost against at home to the Athletics.

“Big win tonight. Try to get another one before we go to (Sacramento) tomorrow,” Raleigh said.

Raleigh was already in rare company with what he’s accomplished this season, but hitting No. 40 only added to the accolades.

He’s the fifth different Mariner to hit 40 in a season, joining Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Nelson Cruz and Jay Buhner.

Only seven other primary catchers in baseball history have hit 40 in a season, and now Raleigh will have his name listed alongside the likes of Mike Piazza, Johnny Bench and Salvador Perez.

Raleigh is also the first catcher and the first switch-hitter in league history to reach the 40-homer mark before the end of July.

Is that enough history tied to one homer?

“It’s a cool milestone to hit and I’m very thankful for it. And it’s a cool moment for sure,” Raleigh said. “I look back to when I got 30 and that was cool, and 40 is definitely very cool as well. So not trying to downplay it, but glad we got the win tonight and I’ll look back one day and it’ll be a cool moment.”

Here’s the rub to Raleigh’s night. He’s been in a little slump. Since late June, it’s been kind of all or nothing with the M’s catcher. Entering Saturday, he was batting just .169 over the past 19 games and of his 12 hits, seven were home runs. He had just two multi-hit games during that 19-game span, and both times he hit two homers.

But his at-bats have appeared better over the past few games and Raleigh added a single to go with the homer Saturday. The last time Raleigh had a multi-hit game that wasn’t all homers came on June 24 in Minnesota.

“I think there’s an adjustment period. Teams start to pitch around you a little bit, and you kind of become aware of that and start making the adjustments there,” Wilson said. “But I think he has just been very consistent pretty much all along this season, and that’s what’s been so great for me to see and for all of us to benefit from.”

While all the attention was understandably on Raleigh reaching 40 homers, something else happened. Julio Rodríguez continued his scorching series with his fourth homer in three games. Rodríguez’s 18 th of the season tied the game at 1-1 in the third and for the second time this month gave him a streak of three straight games with a long ball.

“He’s seeing the ball well. He’s not chasing. He’s waiting on pitches. He’s waiting to get his pitch,” Wilson said.

And not to be forgotten, Randy Arozarena added his 20th home run — and 12th since June 30 — leading off the fourth inning. It’s his fifth straight season reaching the 20-homer mark and came on the anniversary of his trade to Seattle.

Home runs are great and were the reason the M’s had a 3-2 lead after Raleigh’s long ball. But the most important hit of the game might have been Dominic Canzone’s two-run single later in the sixth inning that pushed the M’s lead to 5-2. Jorge Polanco later scored after Luis Rengifo mishandled J.P. Crawford’s grounder and the added runs were helpful cushion on a night most of the top arms in the M’s bullpen needed a rest.

George Kirby did his part in helping the bullpen by working through six innings. This wasn’t close to the performance he had last month when Kirby struck out a career-high 14 in this ballpark. He tied a career-high with three walks and Taylor Ward got to him again for a home run just as he did in June.

But Kirby made the pitches he needed to get out of a few jams. None was bigger than the his final inning when a couple of singles and a hit batter loaded the bases. Kirby struck out Logan O’Hoppe on a diet of fastballs and got Rengifo to chase a 3-2 slider out of the strike zone on his 106 th and final pitch of the night.

Kirby allowed five hits and struck out nine. And he was still amped afterward about his finish to the night.

“Made it a little more stressful than I wanted to, but I’m just really happy I was able to bear down on some of those scoring opportunities for them,” Kirby said. “I’m just glad I had my best stuff there at the end, and just really bear down and get out of it. So I was proud of myself there.”