Fastball

Seattle Mariners' Cal Raleigh Makes Baseball History at Fenway Park

The Mariners catcher became the first switch-hitting catcher to homer from both sides of the plate in a single game at Fenway Park, which has been around since 1912.

Brady Farkas

Seattle Mariners' Cal Raleigh Makes Baseball History at Fenway Park
Seattle Mariners' Cal Raleigh Makes Baseball History at Fenway Park /
In this story:

Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh made baseball history on Monday night, becoming the first switch-hitting catcher to homer from both sides of the plate in a single game at Fenway Park.

Fenway has existed since 1912, so doing something for the first time in its history is rather impressive. As Jayson Stark noted on Twitter, it's also impressive considering the Red Sox had Jason Varitek, a switch-hitting catcher, for 15 years. Jorge Posada, a prominent Yankees catcher, also played several games a season at Fenway and never did it.

Mariners stat man Alex Mayer had the accomplishment first on Twitter:

Cal Raleigh is the first catcher to homer from BOTH sides of the plate in a game in the 112-year history of Fenway Park.

Raleigh is an extremely powerful hitter. He homered 27 times in 2022, also hitting the home run that ended the Mariners 20-year playoff drought. He also homered in the Wild Card round of the playoffs against the Toronto Blue Jays.

He now has seven homers this season in 121 at-bats to go along with a .223 average and 22 RBI.

For his career, he's a .206 hitter with 36 homers and 98 RBI. In addition to Raleigh's two home runs and four RBI, the Mariners also have an RBI fielders choice from Jarred Kelenic. 

At the time of this posting, the Mariners lead 5-1 in the top of the seventh inning. The Red Sox scored their run on an RBI double from Rafael Devers.

The two teams will play again on Tuesday at 7:10 p.m. ET.

Follow Fastball on FanNation in social media

Continue to follow our Fastball on FanNation coverage on social media by LIKING us on Facebook and by following us on Twitter @FastballFN.

You can also subscribe to "The Payoff Pitch" podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Published
Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

Home/History