With his 29th home run of the season Friday, Seattle Mariners slugger Cal Raleigh has hit the most homers by a catcher before the All-Star break in MLB history.
The milestone home run came off Chicago Cubs pitcher Caleb Thielbar in the seventh inning of Friday’s matchup at Wrigley Field. The left-hander threw a 94.2 mph fastball right down the middle of the strike zone, which Raleigh crushed down the left-field line and out of the ballpark. The two-run homer gave Seattle a 6-4 lead. They ended up winning 9-4.
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Raleigh, 28, surpassed Cincinnati Reds Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, who hit 28 home runs before MLB’s midseason break during the 1970 season. Fellow Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez had 26 home runs prior to the All-Star break in 2000.
Setting Raleigh’s achievement further apart from those catching greats is how quickly he reached that home run mark. Raleigh hit his 29th homer in the 73rd game of the season. Bench hit his 28 in 87 games, and Rodriguez got to 26 in 80 games.
The Mariners’ catcher tied Bench with his 28th homer of the year in the first inning off Cubs starter Matthew Boyd, hitting a low, outside 94.6 mph fastball into the left-field seats. He then went yard again in the seventh.
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Raleigh’s 29 home runs currently lead MLB, three more than New York Yankees star Aaron Judge and four ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Shohei Ohtani. He’s batting .273/.379/.646 with 14 doubles and 63 RBI to go with his home run total, which currently has him on pace for 62.
Should he come even close to that, he would easily set the record for home runs by a team’s primary catcher. That record is 48 by the Kansas City Royals‘ Salvador Perez, achieved in 2021.
Nicknamed “The Big Dumper” by former teammate Jarred Kelenic for his large backside and penchant for clutch home runs, Raleigh is well on his way to surpassing the career-best 34 home runs he hit last season. A third-round pick in 2018 out of Florida State, he’s reached 30 or more homers for the past two years.
The two homers were part of a 3-for-4 day for Raleigh, who tallied three RBI in the Mariners’ 9-4 victory. Mitch Garver also hit two home runs, batting 2-for-4 with five RBI. He tagged Ryan Pressly for a two-run shot in the sixth and followed with a three-run blast off Génesis Cabrera in the ninth. The second homer was the 100th of Garver’s career.
Boyd, Pressly and Thielbar each allowed two runs for the Cubs (45-30), while Cabrera gave up three. Eduard Bazardo picked up the win for Seattle (38-36) with his scoreless sixth inning.
