Yankees fans' Cal Raleigh derangement blew up in their faces in Mariners walk-off

As the Seattle Mariners prepared to welcome the New York Yankees on Monday, Cal Raleigh was not exactly winning his AL MVP grudge match with Aaron Judge. And when the Mariners released their starting lineup, Raleigh was conspicuously absent.

There was more to the story, of course. As reported by Adam Jude of The Seattle Times, getting Raleigh more off days is part of the plan for 2026. And it's a good one. He played in 150-plus games in each of the last two seasons, which is a lot for a catcher.

That said, one couldn't help but notice that Yankees fans on X had a veritable laugh riot with Raleigh's day off, in part spurred on by a post by Talkin' Yanks calling attention to his slump. If rooting for the Yankees is their favorite pastime, posts in that same genre made it feel like rooting against Raleigh became their second-favorite throughout 2025 — and they weren't alone there, to be clear.

Even if all that was just good-natured ribbing, it still didn't feel great that Yankees fans got to take a victory lap when Judge won a close race against Raleigh to win his third MVP. But if that was the last laugh of 2025, how sweet is it that Raleigh got the first of 2026?

Cal Raleigh's walk-off against Yankees is just what he and the Mariners needed

As it turned out, "Big Dumper" entered Monday's game as a pinch-hitter for Dominic Canzone with two on and one out in the seventh inning. After striking out in that at-bat, he came through with a single in the same situation in the bottom of the ninth to nail down a 2-1 win.

Raleigh didn't get all of that pitch, hitting it at just 82.9 mph. That's been a theme of his season, as he has yet to register even one hard-hit ball after rewriting record books with his 60-homer onslaught last season.

Even so, it took a good swing to get the bat out in front of that 92 mph cutter from Paul Blackburn. Given that he's fanned 11 times in his first 20 plate appearances, any good swing from Raleigh is welcome at this point.

Despite those 11 strikeouts, it is in the interest of going "Neener neener!" that we'll note Raleigh (.300 OBP) has been a tougher out than Judge (.235 OBP) so far this year. And whereas Judge's reputation as a clutch hitter is increasingly under attack, Raleigh's walk-off is merely his latest achievement in that department.

Mind you, we want the record to show that we respect the heck out of Judge, and wish him nothing but the best when he's not playing the Mariners. We're just classy like that.