Raleigh homers twice, breaks Bench's record in the Mariners' 9-4 victory over the Cubs

Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — Cal Raleigh broke Johnny Bench's record for home runs by a catcher before the All-Star break, hitting his major league-leading 28th and 29th in the Seattle Mariners' 9-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Friday.
Raleigh broke a tie in the seventh with No. 29 to move ahead of Hall of Famer Bench's 1970 mark. Raleigh had three hits in his sixth multi-homer game of the season.
Mitch Garver also homered twice and drove in five runs, putting it away with a three-run shot in the ninth. Randy Arozarena and Donovan Solano each had three hits to help Seattle win for the fifth time in seven games.
The teams combined for six homers with the wind blowing out on a warm day when former Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa returned to Wrigley Field for the first time in over 20 years.
Ian Happ homered in Chicago's three-run first inning, and Reese McGuire added a solo shot. Michael Busch had three hits and two RBIs as NL Central-leading Cubs dropped their second straight.
Raleigh hit his go-ahead drive to the back of the left-field bleachers off Caleb Thielbar (2-2). Raleigh sent his first homer just over the basket in the first off Matthew Boyd.
Eduard Bazardo (2-0) pitched a scoreless sixth for the win. Key moment
Boyd made a dramatic catch of J.P. Crawford's comebacker for the final out in the top of the fifth. Boyd snared the liner at the last instant as it was headed for his face. Key stat
Chicago's Pete Crow-Armstrong popped out softly three times and struck out a day after going deep and becoming the first player with 20 homers and 20 steals this season. Up next
Seattle RHP Emerson Hancock (3-2, 4.48 ERA) was set to face RHP Cade Horton (3-1. 3.47) on Saturday.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
recommended

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

38 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Seth Jones Wins Stanley Cup With Panthers Following Trade From Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks made a big trade with the Florida Panthers on March 1st that sent Seth Jones to Sunrise in exchange for Spencer Knight and a 2026 first-round pick. The 30-year-old defenseman didn't get what he was promised in Chicago and eventually became disgruntled. By the mid-way point of the 2024-25 season, it became clear that the Blackhawks would move him if a team was willing to make a fair deal. The defending Stanley Cup champions did. Advertisement When Jones got to Florida, he became 'one of the guys' on defense instead of 'the guy'. With other stars like Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling in the mix, it's a lot easier to play your game to the best of your ability. Jones and Florida made it to the Stanley Cup Final. This is the third year in a row that Florida made it to the big dance, but it is the first time that Jones has been this far. On Tuesday night, Jones and the Panthers won the Stanley Cup. He went right from the struggling Blackhawks to a team that won the Cup in the same year. During his run to the ultimate prize, Jones had 9 points over the four rounds. There were big goals, plays made, and the defensive performance his team needed to shut down the opposition. Advertisement Jones and the Panthers had to face stars like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, Nikita Kucherov, and Mikko Rantanen, amongst others. Without him on the back end, winning the Cup would have been that much more difficult for Florida. It turned out to be a great move. This was an overall incredible trade deadline for Bill Zito, Florida's GM. In addition to trading for Seth Jones, he also acquired Brad Marchand from the Boston Bruins. Throughout the playoffs, Marchand was one of Florida's best forwards. He would have won the Conn Smythe Trophy if Sam Bennett hadn't scored 15 goals during the postseason. Now that Jones' name will be engraved on the Cup, he will spend the entire summer celebrating. For going through what he has since coming to Chicago, he deserves it. He was always respectful and deserved the right to be happy with the way things turned out for him. The Blackhawks are happy knowing that they have an extra 2026 first-round pick in addition to Spencer Knight, who is a young, promising goalie. If he becomes an above-average starter in the long term, both teams are winners with this trade. Visit The Hockey News Chicago Blackhawks team site to stay updated on the latest news, game-day coverage, player features, and more.

San Francisco Chronicle​

an hour ago

• San Francisco Chronicle​

De La Salle's Tyler Spangler, All-Metro POY, draws big comparisons, posts huge numbers

De La Salle-Concord baseball coach David Jeans couldn't help himself watching Tyler Spangler one day at practice. He had to voice a comparison. Big frame. Big bat. Durable. Smooth. Quiet demeanor. 'You remind me of a young Cal Ripken Jr.,' said Jeans, who figured his junior shortstop wouldn't be familiar with the 19-time All-Star and two-time MVP who was out of Major League Baseball seven years before Spangler was born. Spangler thought for a moment and nodded gratefully. 'He had a pretty good career, didn't he, Coach?' Spangler said. Of course Spangler knew who Ripken was, Jeans reminded himself. This was Spangler, 'the throwback,' Jeans said. Never rattled. Nothing flashy. The consummate team player. Mature beyond his years. Never too up or too down. Ripken is a player Spangler would naturally emulate. But because he bats left-handed, Spangler is more often compared to Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager. Spangler's baseball idol is Barry Bonds. 'Utterly coachable,' Jeans said of Spangler. 'You tell him one thing to work on, he applies it right away. He processes it, works on it and gets it done.' Here's one thing he might not easily process: Spangler is the Chronicle's 2025 Metro Player of the Year. The modest 6-foot-3, 190-pounder led the Spartans (29-4) to their seventh North Coast Section title in eight seasons and third Northern California crown in four years, utilizing every facet of a nearly flawless all-around game. He entered the season having secured a scholarship to Stanford and was ranked the third-best junior in the nation (No. 1 in California) by Prep Baseball Report. He then went out and met all expectations, hitting a team-best .430 (43 hits, 100 at-bats) with 42 runs scored and 40 RBIs. He tied a De La Salle record with 10 home runs to go along with eight doubles and six triples, for a hefty OPS of 1.470 and slugging percentage of .930. On a team filled with stars — he's joined on the All-Metro first team by pitcher Graham Schlicht, infielder Antonio Castro and outfielder Alec Blair — Spangler was the obvious team and East Bay Athletic League MVP. 'He's the best player I've ever played with,' said senior Ethan Sullivan, a second-team All-Metro outfielder. 'His bat control, his hitting and defense is amazing. He's a great teammate, too. Super modest.' When asked about his junior campaign going into the season's final week, the third-year starter said: 'As long as we're winning, it doesn't really matter what I'm doing. As long as we're winning, it's all good and I'm happy.' Spangler rarely swung at pitches out of the zone and would often take the ball to left. He did so twice in the NorCal title game, lacing RBI doubles in the first and seventh innings down the left-field line, igniting the Spartans to a 5-4 win over Serra to close the season. It was a perfect conclusion to a season for Spangler, who made just five errors in 102 total chances, while leading the team with 63 assists. The Spartans made a program-low 25 errors this season, with Spangler also having a hand in a team-best 15 double plays. 'There's nothing he didn't do for us,' Jeans said. 'He's not fazed by exterior or interior expectations. If he makes a mistake, he corrects it, all with a very quiet confidence.'

Chicago Tribune

an hour ago

• Chicago Tribune

How a Ken Griffey Jr. giveaway mitt turned Chicago Cubs' Matthew Boyd into a left-hander — literally

The day remains a defining moment etched in Matthew Boyd's baseball life and trajectory. As a Seattle-area native, the Chicago Cubs left-hander regularly went to Mariners games as a kid. Living only 15-20 minutes away from the Kingdome and then Safeco Field allowed his dad, Kurt, to take advantage of his company's season tickets when they went unclaimed. Kurt would get home around 6:50 p.m. and by the end of the first inning, the Boyds would be at the ballpark. 'It was always something that was really special,' Matthew Boyd told the Tribune. One game was especially memorable. The Mariners had a Ken Griffey Jr. glove giveaway day, and Boyd, then 5, was thrilled to get a mitt modeled after his favorite player that had the slugger's signature printed on the thumb. Boyd, naturally a right-handed thrower, went to take the black plastic glove from a Mariners employee who was distributing them when his dad stopped him and instead took a left-handed fielding glove, explaining that's what Griffey and hard-throwing lefty Randy Johnson wore. 'I just put it on my hand, like, oh, that's what they use, well, I could use it, too, that was my glove,' Boyd recalled. Boyd used that mitt for the next few years, upgrading to a better one when he was 8. Without that giveaway and his dad handing him the left-handed glove, Boyd might not have been a sixth-round pick out of Oregon State and authored a big-league career that, to this point, has spanned 11 years, 197 games and nearly 1,000 innings pitched. 'Oh, completely, he takes credit all the time,' Boyd said of his dad with a laugh. 'But I'm very grateful because it's something that wasn't lost on me. It helped pay for college and a lot of other things, so I'm very thankful for that.' Those Mariners squads from the mid-1990s through the early 2000s became a defining part of Boyd's life. 'Oh man, they were instrumental in it,' said Boyd, who started against the Mariners on Friday in the Cubs' 9-4 loss at Wrigley Field. 'Watching baseball becomes a fabric of life — it spurs a love for it. You get their baseball cards, then I'd go try to imitate them in the backyard.' Photos: Chicago Cubs lose to Seattle Mariners 9-4 at Wrigley FieldLooking back, Boyd didn't realize how lucky he was to regularly watch players such as Griffey Jr., Johnson, Alex Rodriguez, Edgar Martinez and Jay Buhner. And now, in a full-circle experience, he gets to witness his kids, — Meira, Isaiah, Judah and Joanna — get into baseball too. Pete Crow-Armstrong has quickly become Isaiah's favorite player, while Judah enjoys watching Kyle Tucker, and as Boyd added with a grin, his son immediately wants to go into the backyard to hit. 'Sometimes it's lost on us until I get to see it firsthand happening in front of me with my kids, like, those (Mariners) really spurred my love for the game,' Boyd said. 'You watch them playing and it's like, 'I want to go do that. I want to go catch a ball like Griffey, I want to go make a play, putting my foot in the fence and coming up and over, and I want to hit a pull-side home run and walk out of the box like that.'' Boyd, 34, has quickly become an integral part of the Cubs rotation. They signed him to a two-year deal with the expectation that he would pitch like the 2024 version that posted a 2.72 ERA in eight regular-season starts for the Cleveland Guardians in his return from Tommy John surgery. Boyd has been everything the Cubs have needed, helping stabilize the rotation following injuries to their two starters left-handers Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga. Boyd allowed two runs on two hits over five innings Friday and left with a 4-2 lead before the bullpen collapsed, allowing seven runs over the final four innings. Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh hit his major-league-leading 28th and 29th home runs, and Mitch Garver added two homers, off Ryan Pressly and Genesis Cabrera. Boyd made a sensational catch of a hard liner off the bat of J.P. Crawford to end the fifth, but his left shoulder was bruised on the play and manager Craig Counsell removed him after the inning. 'My glove was up against my shoulder, and it kind of got me in a spot a little bit,' Boyd said after the game. 'It swelled up a little bit, and as the half-inning went on it tightened up. It was more precautionary than anything. … I don't foresee it being an issue.' Boyd has a 2.84 ERA this year, with his 85 2/3 innings already his most in a big-league season since 2019, when he finished with a career-high 185 1/3 for the Detroit Tigers. His 5.8% BB% is the lowest of his career.