Raleigh’s walk-off HR sends Mariners to playoffs
SEATTLE — More than an hour after Cal Raleigh ended the longest playoff drought in baseball, he was back on the field with his teammates, circling the perimeter of the field to acknowledge the tens of thousands of fans who still stuck around.
The celebration was more akin to winning something big in October, rather than a victory on the last day of September. But after 21 years, the Seattle Mariners could be excused for going a little over the top upon their return to the playoffs.
“It’s better than maybe what you could dream it to be,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said.
Raleigh hit a game-winning home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Mariners clinched a wild-card berth in the American League with a 2-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Friday night.
Raleigh, pinch-hitting for Luis Torrens, hit a 3-2 pitch from Domingo Acevedo (3-4) just inside the right-field foul pole for a solo homer that sent the Mariners to the postseason for the first time since 2001.
“I remember the moment when I knew it was fair and looking at the team and everybody’s jumping. It was just crazy,” Raleigh said.
Seattle’s celebration on the field lasted more than 10 minutes as fans and players lifted themselves from the burden of two decades without seeing playoffs from their baseball team.
That was just the start.
Nearly an hour later, and with the stands still mostly full, Servais and his team were back on the field after a wild clubhouse celebration. He grabbed the microphone and reminded the crowd, colorfully, that when he arrived along with president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto seven years ago, the mission was to end the “drought.”
“We did it. These players behind me are special. They care. They care about winning the right way. They care about representing the city of Seattle,” Servais told the crowd.
It indeed had been a long wait — the last time the Mariners advanced to the postseason, the team was led by rookie Ichiro Suzuki and Edgar Martinez and managed by Lou Piniella.
As has been the case for most of this season with the Mariners, their 86th win and the one that sent them back to the playoffs happened in the most stressful way possible. Seattle was unable to solve Oakland starter Ken Waldichuk and an assembly line of relievers for eight innings, held only to Ty France‘s RBI double that scored Dylan Moore two batters into the game.
Acevedo struck out Mitch Haniger and Carlos Santana to open the ninth, but Raleigh came through with his 26th home run of the season, the most ever by a Seattle catcher.
“It’s not really a pressure moment,” Raleigh said. “We’re having fun. We’re playing baseball. That’s the way I look at it. And I think that’s the mentality you got to have.”
Aside from the clinching a spot in the postseason, Seattle stayed 1½ games behind the Toronto Blue Jays for the top wild-card spot and one half-game ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays as the three continue to jockey for seeding.
But the place in the standings didn’t matter on this night. It was all about punching the final AL ticket and ending two decades without the guarantee of playoff baseball.
Seattle’s berth ended the longest active playoff drought in any of the four major professional sports, a dubious honor that now falls to the Sacramento Kings, who have not made the NBA playoffs since the 2005-06 season. The Mariners are still the only current team never to have played in the World Series.
The last time the Mariners reached the postseason they tied a major league record by winning 116 games in the regular season, but lost to the New York Yankees 3-1 in the AL Championship Series.
Seattle’s Logan Gilbert threw a career-high eight innings, allowing three hits. His only mistake was a home run by Shea Langeliers in the second inning.
Gilbert retired 18 of the final 20 batters he faced and set down the A’s in order in each of his final four innings. Seth Brown walked leading of the seventh but was retired on a double play.
Gilbert struck out four and walked off the mound after the eighth to a standing ovation and the plea from fans for a run.
Matt Brash (4-4) struck out a pair in the ninth and set the stage for Raleigh.
“It was crazy. I mean, I haven’t been in Seattle but a few years but I feel like I’m one of the fans that have waited for 21 years,” Gilbert said. “It was just a culmination of a lot of waiting.”
BALTIMORE — Texas Rangers rookie Wyatt Langford hit for the cycle in Sunday night’s 11-2 win against the Orioles, completing the feat with a three-run homer down the left-field line in the eighth inning.
It was the first career four-hit game for Langford, who was drafted last year by the Rangers with the No. 4 overall pick and made a swift rise to the majors to make Texas’ Opening Day roster this season.
It was the first cycle in the major leagues in 2024.
Langford tripled in the fourth, doubled in the fifth and singled in the sixth.
At 22 years, 229 days old, Langford is the youngest player in Rangers history to hit for the cycle. He’s the 15th rookie to hit for the cycle since Major League Baseball established an official definition of rookie status in 1958.
The only other rookie in Rangers history to hit for the cycle was Oddibe McDowell, in 1985 against Cleveland. He recorded his in his 59th career game; Langford had his in his 60th career game.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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Buster Olney, ESPN Senior Writer
BALTIMORE — The rules for the 2024 Home Run Derby have been altered significantly, with some of the changes designed to reduce the frantic pace that has concerned past participants.
Within each player’s timed round, the hitter will see a maximum of 40 pitches — similar to how there is a maximum number of basketballs shot in the NBA 3-point contest. This will place a greater premium on efficiency between the batting practice pitchers and the hitters.
Since the Derby moved to a timed format in 2015, the rounds of swings have often shifted into a race of the hitter and pitcher trying to get through as many swings as possible. In last year’s Derby, all of the participants averaged more than 43 swings per round.
Some past participants have spoken about how exhausting the event has become, and have privately fretted about what they perceive to be a heightened risk for injury because of the accelerated pace, which is not typical for hitters taking batting practice.
The hitters will have three minutes in each of the first two rounds, and two minutes in the championship round.
Also, the bonus time for each hitter will no longer be clocked. Instead, the hitter will continue until he’s made three outs — a swing that generates a result other than a home run. A fourth out can be earned with a 425-foot home run in the bonus time. This change will allow for an unlimited number of home runs in the bonus period, meaning that a hitter who is behind will always have a chance to make up a deficit.
Additionally, the first round will no longer be a head-to-head bracket. Instead, the top four first-round scores from the eight hitters will advance to the semifinal bracket, with ties broken by the longest home run in the first round.
Toronto‘s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. won the 2023 Home Run Derby in Seattle. He and his father are the first father-son duo to win the Derby, which is typically among the highest-rated MLB events every year.
Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson became the first player to publicly commit to participating in the 2024 Home Run Derby at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on July 15, making the announcement himself during Sunday Night Baseball. Henderson is among the MLB home run leaders with 26.
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Rachel Doerrie, ESPN
The 2024 NHL draft was a spectacle in every sense of the word. Count me among those who wouldn’t mind seeing the event held at Sphere going forward. I understand wanting to spread league events around, but when you hit a grand slam like the NHL did here, don’t mess with what works.
In terms of the selection process itself, some teams had fantastic drafts, extracting value with each selection, while other teams left value on the table with the talent available.
When considering a grade for each team, the totality of their work was considered: quality of players drafted, selection value and value derived from trades. Here’s our grade for every front office, with insights on particular high-value picks and trades (as well as questionable ones).
Jump to a team:
ANA | BOS | BUF | CGY
CAR | CHI | COL | CBJ
DAL | DET | EDM | FLA
LA | MIN | MTL | NSH
NJ | NYI | NYR | OTT
PHI | PIT | SJ | SEA
STL | TB | TOR | UTA
VAN | VGK | WSH | WPG
ATLANTIC DIVISION
When you have only four draft selections and three are in the 100s, it is difficult to come away with much.
Dean Letourneau was a quintessential Boston pick, even if it was a bit of a reach. The potential for Tage Thompson 2.0 has to be enticing for a franchise that needs help down the middle. He’s going to take a few years, but there is a real chance Letourneau is a unicorn, and Boston took that swing.
Elliott Groenewold, Jonathan Morello and Loke Johansson don’t have NHL projections, but you don’t expect that from midround picks. It’s a long shot for those three to make it, but they are fine bets.
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