Cal Raleigh added to his MLB home run lead, blasting his 34th and 35th of the season for the Seattle Mariners in a 6-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday.
Raleigh won the vote for the American League’s starting catcher in the MLB All-Star Game and joined the Home Run Derby field this week. And he maintained his lead over Aaron Judge, who also homered on Friday to reach 32 on the season.
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Perhaps most impressively, Raleigh has already matched his home run total for last season on July 4. The Mariners have eight games left to play before the All-Star break.
Raleigh went deep in the first inning, reaching down and in for a 92 mph Bailey Falter fastball. The homer was the hardest hit ball of Raleigh’s career at 115.2 mph, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, and went 433 feet into T-Mobile Park’s left-field seats.
He followed that up in the sixth, taking Falter deep again on another fastball down and in. With his 35th homer, Raleigh matched the third-highest home run total before the All-Star break. He also tied Mariners Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. for the most in team history prior to MLB’s midseason hiatus.
Only Barry Bonds (39), Chris Davis, Mark McGwire, Reggie Jackson and Luis Gonzalez (each with 37) have hit more by that point. And as mentioned, Raleigh can still add to that total in the next week.
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Raleigh’s two home runs also gave him seven games this season in which he’s hit multiple homers. Only four other players have achieved that feat before the All-Star break, according to Langs. Jackson has the most with eight.
Two weeks ago, Raleigh hit his 29th homer, surpassing Johnny Bench’s mark for the most ever by a catcher before the All-Star break. With his 30th home run, he became the first switch-hitter to reach that total before the season’s halfway point. Raleigh has hit 14 home runs as a right-handed batter this season, including both of Friday’s blasts. He’s hit 21 long balls from the left side.
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Raleigh’s three RBI also gave him 74 for the season, tying the Chicago Cubs‘ Seiya Suzuki for the MLB lead in that category. Additionally, his .650 slugging percentage and 1.030 OPS both rank second in MLB to Judge.
