Mariners star Cal Raleigh joins MLB’s exclusive 60-homer club

SEATTLE – The magical season just continues for Cal Raleigh.

On a night when the Seattle Mariners clinched their first American League West title in 24 years, Raleigh homered twice to become just the seventh player in MLB history to reach 60 home runs in a season.

AL West champs! Mariners clinch first division title since 2001

Batting from the left side, the switch-hitting Raleigh kickstarted a division-clinching 9-2 rout of the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night by clobbering a monstrous 438-foot, first-inning solo blast that soared into the right-field upper deck at T-Mobile Park.

The All-Star catcher went deep again with another solo shot in the eighth, pulling No. 60 into the right-field seats to place himself among some of the biggest names in baseball history.

The only other players to reach the 60-homer mark are Babe Ruth (1927), Roger Maris (1961), Sammy Sosa (1998, 1999, 2001), Mark McGwire (1998, 1999), Barry Bonds (2001) and Aaron Judge (2022).

Raleigh is now just two homers away from matching Judge’s AL record of 62 home runs, which he set in 2022.

After rounding the bases for the 60th time this season and heading back to the dugout amid a chorus of “MVP!” chants, Raleigh came back out to deliver a curtain call for the 42,000-plus fans who packed T-Mobile Park to watch the franchise secure its first division title since 2001.

As it turns out, they also got to see the latest milestone in Raleigh’s sensational record-breaking campaign.

Raleigh has already broken the Mariners’ franchise record for most home runs in a season, surpassing Ken Griffey Jr.’s mark of 56 homers in 1997 and 1998. He broke the MLB single-season record for most homers by a switch-hitter, surpassing Mickey Mantle’s 54 homers in 1961. And he shattered the MLB single-season record for most homers by a catcher, surpassing Salvador Perez’s 48 homers in 2021.

Raleigh now has four more games to chase down Judge’s AL record.

MLB single-season HR leaderboard

1. Barry Bonds – 73 (2001)
2. Mark McGwire – 70 (1998)
3. Sammy Sosa – 66 (1998)
4. Mark McGwire – 65 (1999)
5. Sammy Sosa – 64 (2001)
6. Sammy Sosa – 63 (1999)
7. Aaron Judge – 62 (2022)
8. Roger Maris – 61 (1961)
T-9. Cal Raleigh – 60 (2025)
T-9. Babe Ruth – 60 (1927)

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