Mariners beat Nationals 9-1 helped by Cal Raleigh’s historic night

Logan Evans also had the longest start of his young Major League career, as the Mariners bounced back from their series loss in Houston.

After a 3-1 series loss in Houston which the Mariners should have at least tied, they returned to Seattle in need of some positivity. It came on Tuesday night in the first of a three-game set against the Nationals, with a 9-1 win which wasn’t as close as the final scoreline suggests.

The Mariners actually got all the scoring they would need on the night in the first inning, as Julio Rodríguez hit a two-run bomb for the early 2-0 advantage. Of note this is the first time he’s reached 10 home runs in his opening 53 games of a season, and he went 3-for-5 overall on the evening with three RBI.

This was soon followed by a solo blast from Cal Raleigh to make it 3-0 in the opening inning, on what would turn out to be a special evening for the Mariners’ clubhouse leader. The Nationals pulled to within 3-1 during the fourth, but an inning later Raleigh hit his second home run to make it 4-1 to the home side, and in the process left his mark in both the team and Major League history books.

Cal Raleigh continues to make his mark on MLB history

It marked the 13th multi-homer game of the 28-year-old’s career, but the first where both came batting right-handed. As a result, he joined David Segui as the only other switch-hitter in franchise history to achieve the feat.

In addition, as noted by Daniel Kramer of MLB.com, Raleigh became the first catcher in MLB history to homer from both sides of the plate, twice from the left side in a game, and twice from the right side in a game, all in the same season. He leads the AL with 19 home runs as of Wednesday morning and is one off the Major League lead held by Shohei Ohtani.

Last year’s AL Platinum Glove Award winner is in a zone right now, hitting better than ever. Speaking to the media postgame, he said:

“I definitely feel the confidence is there, in the sense of, obviously, early in my career, I got turned around a lot right-handed. And I was just not getting the reps there, the consistent reps. If a lefty was on the mound, maybe that’d be a day I got off or something like that. So I just think it all started when I started getting everyday reps and getting that confidence back.”

On top of everything else, Raleigh’s 19 home runs are the most ever in Major League history by a catcher in their team’s first 53 games of a season. Mariners manager Dan Wilson marvelled, as he said:

“Real good company. You know, when you start mentioning those names, you realize what he’s accomplishing and what he’s doing. It’s been incredible for us. … A pretty special player.”

Other offensive highlights included Dylan Moore’s three-hit game, Ben Williamson getting two much-needed ones of his own including a RBI. The other two RBI came from J.P. Crawford and Randy Arozarena, as the Mariners totalled 12 hits and four walks.

Logan Evans repays the Mariners’ faith in him

However, the other big story of the night was the performance by Logan Evans, who had the longest start of his young Major League career to date. He went 8.0 innings and only allowed four hits, a walk and one earned run, while also striking out four.

There are those who question why Evans wasn’t given the opportunity to go for the complete game outing? However, at 88 pitches he was close to his career-high 92 and again, it’s still early days for him in the majors.

The 2023 12th round draft pick is still a work in progress, but has already shown more promise than previously anticipated at this stage of his development. In six starts for the Mariners he has a 3-1 record and in the process, recorded a 2.83 ERA, 130 ERA+, 4.73 FIP and 1.257 WHIP.

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A rare lineup by the Nationals for the Mariners to face

What was interesting about what Evans faced on the night, was that this was just the third time in Mariners history that the opposing lineup started all lefties or switch hitters. No matter the right was just fine, as Wilson said:

“He’s got a lot of weapons, and we talked about that. When you’ve got all lefties up there, you’re going to have to use them. I thought he spun the ball very well tonight. Had good breaking stuff, but used his fastball too at times when he needed to.”

When Evans left the game at the conclusion of the eighth inning, he deservedly received a standing ovation from the Mariners fans in attendance at T-Mobile Park. He said:

“Getting to see all the fans stand up when I’m walking off, I always look up there, but I was like, they’ve been behind me the entire game. So I gave them my little wave, and the crowd got into it. So it was cool.”

With the win the Mariners improve to 30-23 and maintain a 1.5 lead over the Astros at the top of the AL West. George Kirby will get his second start of the season on Wednesday night, as the M’s take aim at clinching the series with a game to spare.

Photos court​‌esy of Tim Rodgers Photography

Pending how things play out with Bryce Miller this year, how confident do you feel about the possibility of Evans taking his place in the Mariners rotation for the duration of 2025? Let us know in the comments section below.