Cal Raleigh’s dream season continued Monday evening when the Seattle Mariners’ slugger capped off a exceptional first half with a historic House Run Derby efficiency. The All-Star catcher was the betting favourite to win the occasion after main the majors in homers on the break. And Raleigh got here via with a robust displaying.
After out-donging the competitors over three rounds, Raleigh was topped the 2025 House Run Derby champion, per MLB.
Whereas the fifth-year veteran was anticipated to dominate the occasion, the Huge Dumper barely made it out of the primary spherical. Raleigh confirmed off his versatility by switching to the proper facet of the plate throughout Spherical 1 after which altering again to the left facet for his bonus swings.
Nonetheless, he ended up in a tie with the Athletics’ Brent Rooker as each gamers had 17 homers. Within the first spherical, distance is the tiebreaker and the longest dong wins. Raleigh simply edged out Rooker’s 470.54-foot blast with a 470.62-foot bomb, narrowly advancing to the second spherical.
Mariners’ star Cal Raleigh makes House Run Derby historical past
However after simply squeaking by early, the Mariners’ backstop discovered his groove. Raleigh simply surpassed Pittsburgh Pirates’ slugger Oneil Cruz in Spherical 2, mashing 19 homers to maneuver onto the finals.
Raleigh squared off towards Junior Caminero within the championship spherical. He put the stress on Caminero by opening with 18 dingers and, regardless of a robust effort from the Tampa Bay Rays third baseman, Raleigh emerged because the Derby champ.
It’s the newest achievement in a historic season for the Mariners’ veteran. Raleigh is the primary catcher and the primary change hitter to ever win the House Run Derby, per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. He’s the primary Mariner to win the competitors since Ken Griffey Jr. took back-to-back titles in 1998 and 1999.
Raleigh leads the majors with 38 bombs on the season. He fell only one blast wanting becoming a member of Barry Bonds with probably the most dwelling runs all-time earlier than the All-Star break. Raleigh is on tempo to depart the yard 65 occasions this season as he makes an attempt to steer the Mariners to a Wild Card berth.
Raleigh’s epic House Run Derby win acquired followers speaking.
Sports activities Analyst wrote:
“Finest power-hitting catcher in MLB historical past”
Juju was nonetheless upset about that tiebreaker:
“Brent Rooker was robbed.”
RangersReports2 added:
“This was Mariners followers’ World Sequence”
The Chairman commented:
“Congrats Cal you placed on a historic efficiency from each side of the plate. Maintain it going within the second half!”
And MLB Digest famous:
“And he did it together with his brother catching & his dad on the mound”