The Seattle Mariners usually shoot off fireworks after victories at home.
But with two outs in the top of the ninth inning Monday night, the team put Cal Raleigh’s headshot on the video board in right field with the following message: “Cal hit 3 home runs so we are out of fireworks (not sorry for the inconvenience).”
The fans didn’t seem to mind.
Raleigh broke out of a season-long slump with the three home runs and four RBIs, and Julio Rodriguez and Cole Young also went deep as the Mariners beat Philadelphia 9-2 Monday night, snapping the Phillies’ nine-game winning streak.
The three-game interleague series will continue Tuesday night in Seattle.
Raleigh had a historic 2025 season in which he hit 60 home runs, the most ever by a catcher and a switch hitter.
His spring training was abbreviated this year by the World Baseball Classic, he made his first career trip to the injured list with an oblique strain that kept him out for more than a month, and he entered Monday’s game batting .159 with 14 homers and 47 RBIs.
That was considered one of the main reasons the defending American League West champions, who came within a game of their first trip to the World Series last season, have struggled to stay in the playoff race this year.
The Mariners are three games behind the first-place Texas Rangers in the American League West and three games out of the final AL wild-card spot.
“This last month will say a lot about us as a group and us as a team,” Raleigh said. “I believe in this group, despite the struggles. Whatever it’s been this year, it creates endurance. And from endurance you get character, and from character you get hope, and that’s what I see in this group.
“We’ve endured a lot this year, and we’re fighting with everything we’ve got right now, and I like where the club’s at. But that being said, obviously the job’s not finished, and you know we got some work to do.”
Raleigh became the first player in Mariners history to hit three homers in a game at T-Mobile Park. The most recent Seattle player to hit three at home was Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez on May 18, 1999, at the Kingdome. The team moved across the street into its new stadium in July of that season.
Phillies starter Zack Wheeler, who dropped his fourth straight decision on Monday, became the franchise’s first pitcher in the modern era (since 1901) to allow at least four homers and five walks in a game.
“Just uncharacteristic … command is probably the biggest thing we see,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said when assessing Wheeler. “The stuff still seems good … I think he was a little frustrated, just that he feels good and not being able to command it the way he wants to.
“He just hasn’t been able to make that pitch to get out of innings. … I’m not concerned that he’s not going to get where he needs to get to. Obviously, anytime guys struggle, you’re concerned about it, you keep working to get better, but you’re not like, ‘Oh this guy’s lost that, he’s never going to be good again.’ So that’s the kind of thing (I mean) when I say that I don’t worry about it.”
The Phillies currently hold the second wild-card position in the National League.
Tuesday’s game will feature a pair of former All-Star right-handers in the Phillies’ Aaron Nola (5-9, 5.12 ERA) and the Mariners’ George Kirby (8-10, 4.18).
Nola has won his past two starts, against Minnesota and Miami, giving up one earned run on five hits in each. In 12 combined innings over those two outings, he walked three and struck out 17. Nola is 1-1 with a 4.38 ERA in two career starts against Seattle.
Kirby has two losses and three no-decisions since his last victory on July 20. He lasted just 3 1/3 innings in a 7-4 defeat Thursday at Milwaukee, in which he allowed six runs on nine hits. Kirby is 0-1 with a 1.13 ERA in one previous start vs. the Phillies.
–Field Level Media
