Hitless in Seattle

On Logan Gilbert's advice, Cal Raleigh showered in his full uniform after Monday's game. The idea was to wash off whatever had been following him through the last two and a half weeks as he was mired in an 0-36 hitless streak. Tuesday night in Houston, it paid off. After running the streak to 0-38, Raleigh lined a single to center in the seventh inning, and then added another in the ninth. The Mariners rolled to a 10-2 win. “I was kind of just, like, rolling my eyes because I knew everybody was going to be making a big deal about it,” Raleigh said after the game. But when the guy who hit 60 home runs last year is in a deep slump, it is a big deal.

The difference a year makes: Raleigh’s 60 home runs in 2025 are the most in Seattle Mariners history, and it earned him AL MVP runner-up honors. He drove in 125. The catcher position, a concession in many lineups, was the best offensive spot on one of the most surprising teams in the American League. This year: .166 average, 7 home runs, 18 RBI in 40 games. He’s pacing to hit half as many home runs as last year.

Anatomy of a drought: The at-bats were not bad, which made the hitless streak stranger. The swing looked mechanically intact to the people watching closely — the problem was hard contact finding fielders, swing decisions going slightly wrong at the margins, the accumulation of small things that turns a good hitter into a numbers curiosity. In a long season this will happen, and the baseball gods eventually giveth after a lot of taketh.

Mariners adrift: Seattle is 21-22, a year after they won the AL West and went to game seven in the ALCS. The rotation is still capable of carrying games, but the lineup has been uneven around Raleigh's slump. Manager Dan Wilson said Tuesday's at-bats were “really well struck” and that he thinks Raleigh "found something." For the Mariners his two singles in a 10-2 win has to be the start of a turnaround for the Big Dumper.

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