For a franchise that’s long battled postseason heartbreak, the Seattle Mariners suddenly look like a team on a mission. Since their inception in 1977, the Mariners have never advanced beyond the American League Championship Series, and their three AL West Division titles stand as rare highlights in an often-turbulent history. Their magical 2001 run ended in disappointment against the Yankees, and their brief return to October baseball in 2022 finished with an ALDS loss to the Houston Astros. Since then, Seattle hasn’t finished higher than second place in the division. Now, with six games remaining in the 2025 regular season, the Mariners sit three games clear of the Astros and are poised to capture their fourth division crown — and the driving force behind this surge has been their power-hitting catcher, Cal Raleigh.
Raleigh has emerged as the heart of Seattle’s lineup and the face of this push toward the postseason. The switch-hitting backstop is in the midst of a truly historic season. He became the first player in MLB history to hit multiple home runs in a game against 10 different opponents in a single year. He also shattered the single-season home run mark for a switch hitter, eclipsing Mickey Mantle, and then broke perhaps the most iconic record in Mariners history — Ken Griffey Jr.’s 56-home-run season. With 58 and counting, Raleigh has rewritten Seattle’s record books and established himself as one of the game’s premier power threats.
What makes Raleigh’s season even more remarkable is his consistency. He has not hit fewer than eight home runs in any month, launching 12 in May and 11 in June while pacing Seattle’s offense through stretches when the team desperately needed production. Before the All-Star break, Raleigh had already slugged 38 home runs — just one shy of Barry Bonds’ mid-season mark — and he’s continued his torrid pace in the second half with 20 more. For a team that historically has lacked offensive firepower, Raleigh has been the anchor in the middle of the order, driving in runs and providing momentum-changing swings.
His individual heroics have coincided perfectly with a dramatic shift in the division race. On September 1, the Astros held a three-game lead, and the Mariners looked like a team in danger of fading down the stretch. After dropping their first four games of the month, Seattle responded with a 10-game winning streak that flipped the standings. That surge propelled them into first place, and even after the streak ended, the Mariners took the rubber game against Kansas City before sweeping Houston in a statement series that solidified their grip on the AL West lead.
Now Seattle’s focus turns to finishing the job. With six games left — three against the struggling Colorado Rockies (43–113) and three versus the playoff-bound Los Angeles Dodgers (88–68) — the Mariners have an opportunity to clinch the division before the final series. Meanwhile, Houston faces the Athletics and Los Angeles Angels, hoping for one last shot at reclaiming the crown. But if Cal Raleigh keeps swinging the bat the way he has all summer, Seattle’s long wait for a breakthrough might soon be over.
For a franchise hungry for a deeper October run, Raleigh’s season could be the spark that finally takes them past the ALCS barrier.
