Mariners' Cal Raleigh joins Ruth, Maris, Judge in MLB playoff home run history

Billy Heyen

Mariners' Cal Raleigh joins Ruth, Maris, Judge in MLB playoff home run history image

Before Tuesday night, only New York Yankees had ever made this kind of postseason history.

Now, Seattle Mariners' superstar catcher Cal Raleigh has joined the club.

The feat: Homering in the playoffs in a season in which a batter hit 60 or more home runs during the regular season.

Barry Bonds never did it. Neither did Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa.

The three guys who had: Babe Ruth in 1927, Roger Maris in 1961 and Aaron Judge in 2022.

And now Raleigh.

MORE: Why fans are convinced Derek Jeter will replace Aaron Boone as Yankees manager

The Mariners' PR team shared the stat on X late Tuesday after Seattle beat the Detroit Tigers to go up 2-1 in the best-of-five ALDS.

On this night, Raleigh's homer was the exclamation point. It came late to give the Mariners an 8-1 lead.

Fittingly, the baseball bounced out of the bullpen to a fan in the left-center seats wearing a shirt that read, "Dump 61 here." As in, Big Dumper, please hit your 61st homer of the season here.

Raleigh obliged.

After his 60 regular season home runs, it's no surprise to see Raleigh keep hitting them. It's still a sight to behold, though, because not many athletes get the level of appreciation that Raleigh has gotten.

Many appreciate his power. Some recognize how good a catcher he is. Still others are just amused by his Big Dumper nickname.

But whatever the reason, Raleigh is putting himself in rare company. And for that he's so grateful.

More MLB News:

Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle