Washington (AFP) – Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh smashed two home runs at Kansas City on Tuesday to break Mickey Mantle’s Major League Baseball record for the most homers by a switch-hitter in a season.
The 28-year-old American smacked his 55th homer of the campaign, a 419-yard solo blast down the right-field line in the third inning, to break the former New York Yankees star’s mark from 1961. But the curveball from Kansas City pitcher Michael Wacha wasn’t the last ball Raleigh would send over an outfield fence. Raleigh bashed his 56th homer of the season in the fourth inning, a two-run round-tripper to centerfield to give the Mariners a 9-1 lead on their way to a 12-5 victory, the club’s 10th consecutive triumph to seize the American League West division lead at 83-68, one game atop Houston.
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That homer also lifted Raleigh level with Ken Griffey Jr. for the most homers in a season in Mariners history, which Griffey achieved in 1997 and 1998. “I feel like my name shouldn’t be in the same sentence with those guys, Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr.,” Raleigh said. “I don’t really have words for it. I don’t know what to say. For now, just keep it going.”
Raleigh has smacked 21 homers as a right-handed batter and 35 as a left-handed hitter so far this year. Raleigh, who had already broken the record for most homers in an MLB season by a catcher, needs six homers in Seattle’s last 11 games to match Yankees slugger Aaron Judge’s 62 homers in 2022 for the most in a season in American League history. “It has been great all year,” said Raleigh. “We’re playing good ball now, trying to keep our heads down until the final bell rings.”
The Mariners have reached the playoffs only once since 2001, that coming when they lost to Houston in the second round in 2022, and have never played in the World Series.
© 2024 AFP
