Cal Raleigh clubs 31st homer as Mariners pummel Cubs to take series

Bob Condotta, The Seattle Times on Jun 22, 2025

Published in Baseball

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CHICAGO — In the “what else is new?” category, Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh hit another home run Sunday, his major league-leading 31 st of the season in just Seattle’s 76th game of the season.

In what did qualify as news, of the happiest kind for the Mariners, Raleigh’s fourth home run in three days helped lead Seattle to a 14-6 victory over the Chicago Cubs and a series win on the road against the team with the second-best winning percentage in MLB — a promising start to what looms as a rugged 10-games-in-10-days road trip.

In tying a season-high for runs scored, the Mariners (39-37) also won for the six time in nine games, a stretch coming on the heels of losing eight of nine, which has allowed them to at least not lose touch with the Houston Astros, who began the day with a five-game lead in the AL West.

Raleigh, though, was hardly alone in the heroics department Sunday.

Dominic Canzone and Donovan Solano each hit two home runs — each hitting one as the Mariners built an early 5-1 lead after four innings, and then each hitting another as Seattle pulled away to seal the win after the Cubs closed the gap to 5-4 in the fifth.

Seattle scored eight of its first nine runs via the longball, typifying a series in which the home run was paramount at hot and windy Wrigley Field — it was 92 degrees at first pitch with a breeze again blowing out. The Mariners then used small-ball to tack on five more runs in the eighth.

Seattle’s five home runs Sunday were a season-high — its most since clubbing seven against the Royals on Aug. 26, 2023.

The Mariners also achieved the unique distinction of seeing two players hit two or more home runs in a game in the same series for the first time in franchise history. Raleigh and Garver did it during Friday’s 9-4 win.

The Mariners needed every run they could get as the Cubs also clubbed four of their own in a series in which the two teams combined for 21 home runs — 10 by Seattle.

By the end of Sunday’s slugfest it was almost easy to forget that Raleigh got it all started.

Almost.

Raleigh, getting a day off from catching and serving as the designated hitter, slammed a two-run shot off Cubs starter Colin Rea in the top of the first to give the Marines a lead they never relinquished.

The home run adds to what has already been a historic first half for Raleigh, who on Friday passed Johnny Bench for the most home runs by a catcher before the All-Star break.

Sunday’s homer gave him the third-highest total of any Mariner before the All-Star break, trailing only the 35 of Ken Griffey Jr., in 1998 — the year he finished with a team-record-tying 56 to win the AL MVP award — and Griffey’s 33 in 1994.

It was his fifth in Seattle’s last five games and also his fourth in the three-game series and five in six games the Mariners have played this year in Chicago. He also scored eight runs in the three games against the Cubs, tying a Major League record by a catcher in a three-game series.

The home runs by Canzone in the second and Solano in the fourth helped Seattle build a 5-1 lead.

And with the way Logan Gilbert was pitching in his second start since returning from missing almost two months with a right elbow flexor strain — he struck out six through four innings — there at least seemed the hope that maybe the Mariners had things well in hand.

But this is Wrigley Field and a good-hitting Cubs team that second in the Major League in runs and third in extra base hits.

The Cubs began to revert to form in the fifth when catcher

Reese McGuire led off the inning by blasting a Gilbert pitch over the wall in center — his second home run in the series — and Seiya Suzuki followed a few batters later with a two-run shot over the wall in left and onto Waveland Avenue. That was Suzuki’s second of the game, having also hit a solo shot in the first.

Gilbert, who allowed just two runs on three hits while striking out 10 in a 2-0 loss to Boston Monday, finished allowing four runs on eight hits with six strikeouts — but maybe most vitally, no walks — in throwing 90 pitches.

Seattle responded to the Cubs’ uprising with two in the top of the sixth — including Canzone’s second homer of the game — to take a 7-4 lead.

Solano then added a two-run shot far over the left-field wall for what was the fourth multi-home run game of the 37-year-old’s career and continued his recent hot streak.

Kyle Tucker added a two-run shot for the Cubs in the seventh.

But Seattle put it away in the eighth in improving to 9-3 this season in the rubber games of series.

The Mariners begin a four-game set at Minnesota on Monday at 7:40 ET with Bryan Woo (6-4, 3.12 ERA) going against Bailey Ober (4-4, 4.54).

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