Beef Continues: Cal Raleigh burns Blue Jays manager after big HR

Apr 10, 2024, 5:20 PM | Updated: 5:41 pm

Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh runs the bases after a home run in Toronto. (Mark Blinch/Getty Images)

(Mark Blinch/Getty Images)

Editor, Seattle Sports

If Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh isn’t tough to pitch to, then Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider must have forgot to tell his pitching staff.

Raleigh led the Mariners to a 6-1 win in extra innings on Wednesday, smacking an opposite-field home run to lead off the 10th inning on the first pitch he saw from Toronto lefty Tim Mayza.

Wednesday: Raleigh’s blast lifts Seattle Mariners past Blue Jays in extras

The 27-year-old catcher seems to love hitting against the Blue Jays, as the two-run homer (it also scored the automatic runner) was his ninth in 15 games against them in the regular season. Including the postseason, he’s homered seven times in Toronto, more than any other opposing ballpark.

Our pal Cal. pic.twitter.com/xvYM8Bir6k

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) April 10, 2024

What makes it even more notable is that Schneider unnecessarily made the rivalry between Raleigh and the Jays personal, downplaying his hitting ability after Raleigh homered twice in a 10-8 Mariners win north of the border in April 2023.

“He’s not very tough to pitch to when you execute your pitches,” Schneider said at the time.

That’s what you call an unforced error, folks. Raleigh certainly heard that, and after homering for the second time in the three-game series in Tornto on Wednesday, he responded with some comments of his own.

“I don’t have much to say,” Raleigh said when asked about Schneider’s past comments. “If you don’t have anything nice, don’t say anything at all, I guess. He’s had a lot of beef with people in the league and he kind of did it to himself.”

Burn.

As things stand, Raleigh has driven in 16 runs in those 15 regular season games against Toronto, and don’t forget that he also hit a homer in the first inning of Seattle’s Game 1 win on the way to a 2022 American League Wild Card Series sweep at the Blue Jays’ Rogers Centre home.

“I like coming here,” Raleigh said. “It’s good memories here, going all the way back to ’22.”

The Mariners (5-8) are off Thursday before beginning a three-game weekend series against the Chicago Cubs at 6:40 p.m. Friday at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park. Radio coverage of the game will begin at 5:30 p.m. with the pregame show on Seattle Sports 710 AM, the Seattle Sports app and SeattleSports.com. Click here for details on how to stream Mariners Radio Network broadcasts.

This post includes contributions from an Associated Press article by Ian Harrison.