Did you mention Cal Raleigh?
Mets beat skidding Yankees. Dodgers suffer worse loss ever. JPP opens up about ‘life-changing’ accident
Good morning, all! I hope your 4th of July was a terrific one.
When Aaron Judge stepped to the plate in the first inning of Friday’s game against the crosstown rival Mets, Jason Dominguez had already given the skidding Yankees a 1-0 lead with a game-opening home run. Judge followed with a home run too, his 32nd of the season. At the time that placed last year’s home run leader with 58, one behind this year’s home run leader, Cal Raleigh.
Who is Cal Raleigh you ask? The catcher for the Seattle Mariners, who has suddenly entered the conversation about who is the best home run hitter in baseball. And just to erase any doubts, Raleigh slugged two home runs after Judge hit his to lead the Mariners to a 6-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, who had just shutout the St. Louis Cardinals in three straight games. Raleigh now has 35 round trippers on the season.
Think of home runs and immediately Judge and Shohei Ohtani come to mind. Now Raleigh needs to be included, as he tries to become only the third catcher in history to lead MLB in home runs in a season. Johnny Bench led the majors in home runs twice, when he slugged 45 in 1970 and 42 in 1972. Bench was 22, when he first accomplished the feat. Salvador Perez was the other catcher to lead big league baseball in home runs, doing it in 2021, when he and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. tied for the home run championship, each slugging 48. Perez was 31 years of age.
Now along comes Raleigh, who has had three straight seasons of 30 or more home runs, including this year. He is 28. It is an accomplishment for any player to lead the majors in home runs but especially difficult for a catcher. The wear-and-tear on a catcher’s body, during the course of a season, is enormous. No matter how conditioned a catcher may be, his body breaks down. It is the nature of the position. Throw in the catcher is really the quarterback of the team, involved in every single pitch of a game and it is remarkable he is even standing come September, let alone leading the majors in home runs.
Raleigh, the Mariners third round pick out of Florida St. in the 2018 draft, has committed to being a contestant in the home run derby in Atlanta on July 14. Many a participant has seen his power output short-circuit after that event. Only time will tell if Raleigh gets bitten by that same bug. Meanwhile, he needs to be front-and-center on any conversation, involving baseball’s contemporary home run hitters.
Here are some other DAN ON SPORTS top stories for Saturday, July 5, 2025:
If you are looking for links to the eating contest, you’ve subscribed to the wrong newsletter
The New York Yankees are now in a free fall, after getting a season-high 17 games over .500. Since then they are 6-and-15, after losing their fifth straight game on Friday, this time to the crosstown rival Mets, 6-5. If you are a regular reader of this newsletter, you know I was not impressed with the Yankees, who started slowly, then got hot but are now back to playing bad baseball. The grind of the season will wear down all baseball clubs, flawed teams in particular, and the Yankees are a flawed team. Once holders of an eight-game lead, New York blew that and is now in second place and could soon be in third. I am not surprised. They are a mediocre team that with Juan Soto, caught lightening in a bottle and won their first pennant since 2009 last year. The last time this once, proud franchise also won a World Series was in 2009. They are light years behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and their last 21 games prove it.
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DAN