Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh hit a career-high three home runs during a 9-2 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night, August 24, 2026, at T-Mobile Park. The performance stopped Philadelphia’s season-best winning streak at nine games and marked Raleigh’s first career three-homer game as he works to break out of a season-long slump.
A Record-Breaking Night at T-Mobile Park
Cal Raleigh hasn’t looked like this since the night he hit 60. Yet even during that historic 2025 season, he never had a game like this. The Mariners’ big backstop went for a full-fledged hat trick on Monday night against the Phillies, crushing three home runs for the first time in his career — and more so, putting tangible evidence to what’s been brewing for weeks. The Big Dumper might be heating up, and at the most opportune time. Over the course of the 132 games they’ve played in 2026, the Mariners have searched for that feeling of success, overall production and joy from the lineup, unable to replicate or manufacture it for more than a game here or there.
The key pieces of last year’s division-winning squad have struggled to carry their success from 2025 into this season at varying levels. But none more so than Cal Raleigh, who has suffered through the worst season of his career after having the best season of any catcher in Major League Baseball history. But the crowd of 35,293 in attendance and the fans still watching at home were rewarded with a hopeful reminder of what the Mariners could still be in the final five weeks of the season when Raleigh is right and hitting the ball with authority. Raleigh smashed a career-high three homers to lead the Mariners’ longball barrage in a 9-2 drubbing of the Phillies. Given the circumstances surrounding the two teams, the outcome was somewhat surprising. The Phillies arrived in Seattle as the hottest team in baseball having won nine straight games, including Sunday’s dramatic comeback victory where they turned a 4-0 deficit around.
Julio Rodríguez launched a three-run homer in the first and Raleigh added a two-run drive to cap a five-run inning against struggling Phillies ace Zack Wheeler. Raleigh and Cole Young opened the fifth with back-to-back homers, chasing Wheeler, and Raleigh connected for another solo shot off reliever Chase Shugart in the seventh to give him 17 home runs this season. Raleigh went yard in the first inning against Zack Wheeler, in the fifth — again off Wheeler — then once more in the seventh off reliever Chase Shugart, opening the floodgates toward a 9-2 win, as Seattle gained ground in the American League playoff race.
It was the first multihomer game of the year for Raleigh and the first three-homer game of his career. The switch-hitting catcher finished 3 for 3 with a walk and raised his batting average from .159 to .167. He pulled all three homers into the right-field seats from the left side of the plate, becoming the 13th player in franchise history to hit three home runs in a game. The only other Seattle catcher to accomplish the feat was current Mariners manager Dan Wilson in April 1996. In T-Mobile Park’s history, no Mariners hitter had homered thrice in the same game until Monday. And overall since this venue opened in July 1999, only one visiting player had — fellow catcher Victor Martinez, who did so for Cleveland. Raleigh was runner-up for the AL MVP award last year, when he led the majors with 60 home runs and added 125 RBIs. Wheeler (10-5) allowed a season-high eight runs on nine hits and five walks in four-plus innings while striking out four.
Breaking Out of a Season-Long Slump
Cal Raleigh busted out of a season-long slump with the first three-homer game of his career Monday night. He began the night with a strikeout rate of 31.2%.
“I had never done that before — at any level. So, hard to fathom, and it was a fun night,” Raleigh said.
I’ve been feeling better in the box,
Raleigh said. “Physically, trying to just get my hands back sooner and I feel like I’ve done a better job of that. And then mentally, it’s just been about that belief and just having that hope and that optimism every single day. Not getting too down, not getting too up and, you know, trying to just be ready and prepared for the game.”
Halting the Phillies and Changing the Momentum
Things started well for the Phillies, who took a 1-0 lead early before Seattle’s offense took over.
“This last month will say a lot about us as a group and us as a team,” Raleigh said. “I think this is kind of where the boys are separated from the men. I believe in this group, and despite the struggles — whatever it’s been this year — that kind of creates endurance. And from endurance you get character, and from character, you get hope. And that’s what I see in this group.”
