Cal Raleigh simply refuses to stop carrying Mariners in historic postseason

You know you've come up with a big hit when it's even bigger than a game-tying home run in a Championship Series game that, oh yeah, was that guy's 64th home run of the year. And for this, Eugenio Suárez can and should take a bow.

And yet, the Seattle Mariners would not be where they are right now — namely, one win away from the World Series by way of a 3-2 lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS — without Cal Raleigh. This is perhaps the most obvious thing anyone has said in any context this year, but it still needs to be said anyway.

Though the Mariners were only down by a run when Raleigh strode to the plate to lead off the bottom of the eighth inning of Game 5 of the ALCS on Friday, it felt more like 10 runs. The story of how the series was playing out in Seattle had two parts: one was that the Mariners couldn't stop the Blue Jays from scoring, and the other was that the Mariners themselves couldn't buy a hit, much less a run.

But then, batting right on left against Brendon Little, Raleigh swung and connected on a sinker for a high, deep fly ball to left field. It seemed to linger in the Seattle sky forever, and Myles Straw seemed to have a beat on it as he drifted toward the wall. Until, of course, the ball easily evaded his glove and landed in the stands instead.

Like that, the game was tied, and the win probability swung from 70 percent in favor of the Blue Jays to 61 percent in favor of the Mariners. For perspective, Suárez's go-ahead grand slam four batters later "only" shifted it from 87 percent to 99 percent.

Cal Raleigh just keeps adding new chapters to a season for the books

This is already the second huge home run that "Big Dumper" has had in this series. His solo home run off Kevin Gausman in Game 1 didn't win the game, but it did turn a 1-0 Blue Jays lead into a 1-1 tie and seemed to suck all the air out of the Rogers Centre. The Mariners took the lead moments later and didn't give it back as they went on to win 3-1.

Even when he hasn't swung the bat, Raleigh has still been able to swing this series. The Blue Jays pitched around him twice in Game 2, once on a six-pitch walk from Trey Yesavage that featured nothing good to hit and then intentionally in the fifth inning. Both times, the Mariners came through with three-run homers to fuel a 10-3 blowout.

All this is worth bringing up because sometimes you really need to get into the minutiae to truly appreciate one player's impact in October. But the overall results aren't too shabby either, as Raleigh's 1.127 OPS for the playoffs puts him in special company among catchers who have gone that high in a single postseason (minimum 25 plate appearances):

• Yogi Berra: 1953 and 1956
• Tim McCarver: 1964
• Johnny Bench: 1976
• Gary Carter: 1981
• Cal Raleigh: 2025

Obviously, none of those guys ever hit 60 home runs in a season. Raleigh is one of only seven players who have, and the only one to do so as both a catcher and a switch-hitter.

As of now, Raleigh is also one of just two American League players to hit as many as 64 home runs in a year between both the regular season and the postseason. The other is Aaron Judge, who only added two more in October of 2022 after slamming an AL-record 62 during the regular season.

Raleigh will have at least two more games to pass Judge and claim total AL home run history all to himself. And if he keeps carrying the Mariners like he has been, he may well earn four more shots in the World Series.