KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Cal Raleigh broke a record held by Mickey Mantle on Tuesday night while matching another held by Ken Griffey Jr.
That's some company for a single night.
The Mariners catcher hit his 55th homer of the season in the second inning against the Kansas City Royals, sending him past Mantle's mark for a switch-hitter that had stood since 1961. Then, Raleigh hit his 56th the very next inning, matching the club record that Griffey first established in 1997 and matched himself the following year.
“It just doesn't even seem real,” said Seattle designated hitter Dominic Canzone, who on almost any other night would have been the star. He went 5 for 5 with three homers in the 12-5 win — the 10th straight for the Mariners.
“I mean, he just does it every single day,” Canzone continued, “and he's doing it behind the plate as well. So just to have that type of a performance out of your catcher, it's something that you really don't see. It's like, a once-in-a-lifetime type of player.”
Making the two-homer night even more impressive? Raleigh took a pitch from Mariners starter Logan Gilbert that bounced off the plate and off his neck, where it had missed under his catcher's mask. A red welt was visible after the game.
Good thing for Seattle that he never thought about taking the rest of the night off.
“Yeah, I mean, it didn't feel good,” said Raleigh, who also had a double and finished 3 for 5 at the plate. "You know, kind of let my head up a little bit. Have to tuck it in a little better. It was all good. Just stung a bit.
“One of those things that happen to catchers every once in a while.”
The homer barrage? That doesn't happen among catchers very often. Raleigh earlier this season passed the home run mark for a backstop that had been held by Kansas City counterpart Salvador Perez, who hit 48 homers during the 2021 season.
Now, the next big name on the list is Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who had the last of the nine 60-homer seasons in the majors when he hit 62 in 2022. That also stands as the American League record.
“It's really cool. I'm humbled by it. A crazy kind of thing I never thought would happen,” Raleigh said, standing inside a tunnel beneath Kauffman Stadium after his 20th career multi-homer game and his 10th this season. “Just taking it day-by-day, pitch-by-pitch. Really enjoying every day with these guys, and just trying to finish the season strong.”
The Mariners are certainly doing that. Their win over Kansas City to open their final trip of the regular season maintained a half-game AL West lead over Houston, which beat Texas on Tuesday night.
Seattle's winning streak is its longest since July 2-17, 2022, when the club won 14 in a row.
And ultimately, that's what matters the most to Raleigh, who seems to relish his home runs only when the Mariners win.
His first Tuesday night came off Royals starter Michael Wacha in the third inning while batting left-handed. His second came off Daniel Lynch IV while batting right-handed. It was the fifth time in his career he has homered from both sides of the plate.
Raleigh is three homers ahead of the Phillies' Kyle Schwarber for the big league lead with 12 games to go.
“You know, I think he's approached this from Day 1 with a ton of humility,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “That's the kind of person he is. You know, his desire is to win, and that's what he wants to do here in Seattle is win. And that's where his drive comes from. And that's the way he has approached this whole thing. And I think, you know, Cal just continues to check off these milestones, and he does it with such a humble heart. He has handled it all so incredibly well."
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
Seattle Mariners' Cal Raleigh jogs the bases after hitting his 54th home run of the season, a two-run home run to tie Mickey Mantle for most home runs by a switch-hitter in a single season, against the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Seattle Mariners' Cal Raleigh runs home to score on a double by Julio Rodriguez during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
MOSCOW (AP) — A car bomb killed a Russian general on Monday, the third such killing of a senior military officer in just over a year. Investigators said Ukraine may be behind the attack.
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff, died from his injuries, said Svetlana Petrenko, the spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee, the nation's top criminal investigation agency.
“Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of inquiry regarding the murder. One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services,” Petrenko said.
Since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine nearly four years ago, Russian authorities have blamed Kyiv for several assassinations of military officers and public figures in Russia. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of them. It has not yet commented on Monday’s death.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Vladimir Putin had been immediately informed about the killing of Sarvarov, who fought in Chechnya and had taken part in Moscow's military campaign in Syria.
Russia has blamed a series of other apparent assassinations on Ukraine.
Just over a year ago, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building. Kirillov's assistant also died. Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for the attack.
An Uzbek man was quickly arrested and charged with killing Kirillov on behalf of the Ukrainian security service.
Putin described Kirillov’s killing as a “major blunder” by Russia’s security agencies, noting they should learn from it and improve their efficiency.
In April, another senior Russian military officer, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in the General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed in his car parked near his apartment building just outside Moscow. A suspected perpetrator was quickly arrested.
Days after Moskalik's killing, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he received a report from the head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence agency on the “liquidation” of top Russian military figures, adding that “justice inevitably comes" although he didn't mention Moskalik's name.
Ukraine, which is outnumbered by Russia’s larger, better equipped military, has frequently tried to change the course of the conflict by attacking in unexpected ways. In August last year, Ukrainian forces staged a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region even as they struggled to stem Russian offensives on many parts of the front line. Moscow's troops eventually drove them out, but the incursion distracted the Russian military resources from other areas and raised Ukrainian morale.
Ukraine has also launched repeated attacks on the Russian navy in the Black Sea with sea drones and missiles, forcing it to relocate its warships and limit the scale of its operations.
And in June, swarms of drones launched from trucks targeted bomber bases across Russia. Ukraine said over 40 long-range bombers were damaged or destroyed, although Moscow said only several planes were struck.
Meanwhile, Western officials have accused Russia of staging a campaign away from the battlefield, accusing it of orchestrating dozens of incidents of disruption and sabotage across Europe as part of an effort to sap support for Ukraine. Moscow has denied the claims.
This story has been updated to correct that Sarvarov’s killing is the third such killing in just over a year, not within a year.
This undated image provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, shows Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, who was killed Monday morning after an explosive device detonated under his car in southern Moscow. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
Investigators work at the scene where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed under his car in Moscow, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo)
This image taken from video provided by Investigative Committee of Moscow on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, shows the scene where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed under his car in Moscow. (Investigative Committee of Moscow via AP)
Policemen secure the area near the scene where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed under his car in Moscow, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo)
This image taken from video provided by Investigative Committee of Moscow on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, shows the scene where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed under his car in Moscow. (Investigative Committee of Moscow via AP)
This photo provided by Investigative Committee of Moscow on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, shows an investigator working at the scene where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed under his car in Moscow. (Investigative Committee of Moscow via AP)
