Cal Raleigh's historic homers lift Mariners to rout of A's

Adam Jude, The Seattle Times on Aug 24, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

SEATTLE — Cal Raleigh to the rescue.

On a historic afternoon, the Mariners catcher hit his 48th and 49th home runs of the season to break an MLB record, and his good friend Logan Gilbert struck out a career-high 13 in an 11-4 romp of the Athletics on a nearly flawless Sunday at T-Mobile Park.

Desperate for an offensive spark, Mariners (70-61) got one with Raleigh’s first swing of the game when he launched his 48th home run 448 feet off A’s left-hander Jacob Lopez into the second deck in left field to tie Salvador Perez for the all-time record for homers by a catcher.

It was the longest home run of Raleigh career hitting right-handed.

Raleigh provided another lift with his second swing of the game in the second inning, sending a first-pitch changeup from Lopez off the out-of-town scoreboard and into the visitors’ bullpen.

That gave him 49 homers on the season and the MLB record by a catcher.

After he rounded the bases, Raleigh drew a standing ovation from the home crowd, who showered him with an “MVP!” chant. After crossing home plate, Raleigh was greeted with handshakes and hugs by teammates and coaches.

He then stepped up and out of the dugout for a curtain call, waving his helmet to the crowd.

The Mariners had lost eight of 10 coming into Sunday, and their offensive outburst secured their first series win in two weeks, since completing a sweep of Tampa Bay on Aug. 10.

The M’s improved to 30-10 when Raleigh homers, and 7-2 when he homers twice.

Raleigh’s nine multi-homer games passed Ken Griffey Jr. (1997) for the most multi-homer games in franchise history and moved him ahead of Mickey Mantle (1961) for the most multi-homer games by a switch-hitter.

Gilbert pitched one of his best games of the season, allowing just three hits and one run on a Jacob Wilson solo homer in the second inning. Gilbert allowed just three hits with one walk.

He had 13 strikeouts and 25 swings-and-misses, both career highs.

With the win, the Mariners pulled with two games of Houston atop the AL West. The Houston Astros lost their series finale in Baltimore, 3-2, on Sunday.

____