Mariners' Cal Raleigh has a real shot at a home run record held by Barry Bonds

The Seattle Mariners did not have a good night on Tuesday, as they waited out a rain delay only to get crushed by the New York Yankees by a 10-3 final. Yet because water is still wet and the sky is still blue, it was naturally another good night for newly minted All-Star catcher Cal Raleigh.

He blasted his 36th home run of the season into Yankee Stadium's upper deck in the eighth inning, thereby breaking a tie he had been holding with Ken Griffey Jr. Raleigh now has the Mariners' first-half home run record all to himself.

Up next: Barry Bonds' all-time first-half home run record, which is not as far out of Raleigh's reach as you might think.

Cal Raleigh has five games left to match Barry Bonds' first-half home run record

It was 24 years ago that Bonds set the single-season home run record by hitting 73 in 2001, and 39 of those came before the All-Star break. That was two more than the previous record, first set in 1967 by Reggie Jackson and matched by Mark McGwire in 1998 — Chris Davis later joined them by hitting 37 in the first half of the 2013 season.

Thus, the simple math: Raleigh needs just three more home runs, and he has five more games in which to hit them. Seems doable, yes?

Yes, indeed. The switch-hitting backstop simply hasn't experienced many lulls in his slugging onslaught in 2025, and the reasons for that are many. His approach is tighter than it's ever been, and his swing from both sides of the plate has been a model of slugging efficiency. He's hitting a ton of balls in the air, and often to his pull side.

This is an especially useful recipe for when Raleigh bats left-handed at Yankee Stadium, which he'll get to do in two more games on Wednesday and Thursday. Its short porch in right field is infamous, and it may yet come in handy for his assault on home run history. Though his blast on Tuesday cleared the wall by plenty, he's hit a couple non-homer balls this year (see here and here) that would have been out at Yankee Stadium.

So, yes, we're saying that Raleigh has a chance at Bonds' first-half home run record. And not even a Dumb and Dumber chance, either. A real one.

There is an obvious caveat, which is that Bonds played in only 81 games in the first half of the 2001 season. Raleigh has already played in 89 games this year, hence why his overall home run pace isn't exactly Bonds-ian. He is tracking toward 64 home runs, which would break Aaron Judge's American League record but fall well short of Bonds' overall MLB record.

Speaking of Judge, he's suddenly hot on Raleigh's heels after hitting his 34th home run earlier in Tuesday's contest. It was his fourth homer this month and his sixth in his last nine games, whereas Raleigh "only" has four long balls to show for his last 13 outings.

For now, though, the home run race remains Raleigh's to lose. And if he is able to pull even with or surpass Bonds in the record books, we'll have still more ammunition to discuss whether the same is true of the AL MVP race between Raleigh and Judge.