What is the story about?
Good
morning. OK, the Mariners and Cal Raleigh aren’t that old. But I wanted to commit to the pun.
- The Seattle Mariners clinched their first American League West title since 2001 after Cal Raleigh hit his 59th and 60th home runs in a win over the Mariners on Wednesday. Gabe Lacques has the details.
- The fan who caught Raleigh’s 60th home run gave it away to a kid, as if it were any other home run. So the Mariners tracked the man down and invited him to T-Mobile Park the next game for a meet-and-greet with Raleigh and lots of autographed merchandise anyway. Daniel Kramer reports.
- Zach Meisel and Cody Stavenhagen write that Raleigh’s fellow catchers can’t believe what he’s done this year. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- Ben Clemens examines Raleigh’s chances of equalling or beating Aaron Judge’s American League record of 62 home runs.
- Anthony Castrovince thinks that pitch framing could be the factor that wins Raleigh the AL MVP Award.
- Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge set a new American League record of his own with his 35th intentional walk. Judge just needs to be intentionally walked another 86 times in the next three games to claim the major league record from Barry Bonds. I believe in you, Aaron! You can do it!
- Jordan Schusterman writes that the Mariners are rising to meet their moment.
- Will Leitch has five reasons why this could be Seattle’s year.
- You’re all familiar with the Tigers collapse and how the Guardians have made up a record 15.5 game deficit to move into first place in the AL Central. Yesterday, the Tigers managed to beat the Guardians to put the two teams back into a tie with three games to play.
- Jack Baer looks at what’s ahead this weekend for the Guardians and Tigers.
- There’s an update from Tim Stebbins on the condition of Guardians designated hitter David Fry after he was hit in the face on Tuesday by a Tarik Skubal fastball.
- Cody Stavenhagen has more details on the Tigers historic collapse. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- The Dodgers clinched their 12th National League West title in the last 13 years.
- Mike Petriello has six different ways the Dodgers could use Shohei Ohtani in the playoffs. Some of them are “very, very wild” according to Petriello.
- A roundtable discussion at ESPN dot com about predictions for the postseason.
- Ben Clemens has the players who have been heroes and disappointments for playoff teams in September.
- David Schoenfield hands out regular-season grades for all 30 teams. Ooh. I wonder what grade the Rockies got?
- The most “most” teams of the 2025 season, in different categories.
- Daniel Kramer looks at the closest MVP races in history.
- Tim Keown looks at the Athletics time in Sacramento and how the team has just managed to alienate a whole new set of fans.
- Ken Rosenthal looks at 15 teams that could have a new manager and/or genearl manager by Opening Day 2026. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- One of those teams is the Rangers, where current manager Bruce Bochy is refusing to talk about whether he wants to return next year. Bochy is 71 and is a shoo-in for Cooperstown when he retires. If he ever retires for good.
- Mike Axisa ranks all 30 teams as an employer for Cardinals starter Sonny Gray next year, after Gray said he was willing to waive his no-trade clause.
- Michael Baumann gives an early evaluation to this year’s mid-season trades.
- Manny Randhawa notes that a record five players have reached the 30 home run/30 steals mark this year. And two more, the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong and the Mariners’ Julio Rodriguez, have a chance to join them by the end of the regular season.
- Netflix will reportedly have exclusive rights to the Opening Day game for the next three years, as well as the Home Run Derby. That doesn’t mean every team’s opener, but the marquee matchup, which next year will be the Giants and Yankees.
- And finally, Stephen J. Nesbitt looks at MLB’s hopes to turn “Big Inning” into something with a similar cultural impact as the NFL’s “RedZone.”
Do you find this article useful?
