Cal Raleigh clubs two more homers as Mariners rally past Cubs

Bob Condotta, The Seattle Times on Jun 20, 2025

Published in Baseball

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CHICAGO — Cubs fans found out early Friday that they would have a chance to honor one of the greatest home run hitters in history, Sammy Sosa, as he made his first public return to Wrigley Field since 2004.

After the 40,787 in attendance got a chance to honor Sosa before the bottom of the second inning, they watched the player who is so far the best home run hitter of 2025, the Seattle Mariners’ Cal Raleigh, club two more dingers to lead the Mariners to a come-from-behind 9-4 win over the Cubs.

Mitch Garver also hit two home runs, including a three-run shot with two outs in the ninth inning, on a day when the Mariners scored all nine runs with two outs.

Raleigh has 29 home runs, which at game’s end was three more than anyone else in MLB. It was his 16th career multihomer game and sixth this season.

Raleigh’s heroics gave the Mariners the start they wanted as they kicked off what figures to be a grueling 10-day trip to Chicago, Minnesota and Texas, and 17 games in a row.

Raleigh homered in the first to put the Mariners up 1-0 off Cubs starter Matthew Boyd, a former Mariner.

Raleigh’s first-inning home run tied Reds Hall of Famer Johnny Bench (1970) for the most runs by a catcher before the All-Star break.

On a day when the winds were blowing out at 12 miles an hour, the Cubs used two home runs of their own to take a 4-2 lead after five innings.

The Mariners tied it on a two-run homer by Garver in the sixth off Cubs reliever Ryan Pressly, which followed a Randy Arozarena double, then took the lead in the seventh when Rodriguez singled with two outs and came home on Raleigh’s second shot of the game, a 419-foot blast to left field off reliever Caleb Thielbar.

Five relievers shut out the Cubs over the final four innings as the Mariners held on to improve their record at Wrigley to 4-8.

Sosa, who is the Cubs’ all-time HR hitter with 545 and ninth all-time with 609, hadn’t been to Wrigley since his last season as a player with the team in 2004, an estrangement that followed allegations that he had used steroids during his career.

Sosa made what was perceived as a public apology last December saying he had “made mistakes’’ during his playing days, which opened the door to him being publicly embraced again by the organization.

Sosa is slated to be inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in September.

The Mariners’ first-inning lead was short-lived as Ian Happ led off the bottom of first with a home run off starter George Kirby.

Kirby allowed a single to Kyle Tucker and double to Seiya Suzuki. Pete Crow-Armstrong, emerging as a legit contender for NL MVP honors, swung at the first pitch, an 85-mile an hour knuckle curve, popping it up in foul territory and caught by third baseman Ben Williamson.

Dansby Swanson struck out swinging on a 96.4-mile an hour fastball on a full count.

Just when it looked like Kirby might get out of it, Michael Busch lined a shot to left to score two and put the Cubs up 3-1.

Kirby, making his sixth start of the season, wasn’t as sharp as he had been in his three previous June starts, when he’d allowed six earned runs in 17 innings, including a 14-strikeout game against the Angels.

After giving up three runs on four hits in the first inning he settled down to keep the Mariners in it, giving up only one run on a solo homer by Reese McGuire in the fourth inning.

McGuire won a nine-pitch battle to club his third home run of the year and give Chicago a 4-2 lead.

Kirby got off the hook for the decision when the Mariners tied it in the sixth.

Boyd helped himself with a stunning play to end the fifth inning when he got his glove up as he ducked out of the way of a hard liner off the bat of JP Crawford.

Boyd somehow made the catch, rolling over to show the ball and tossing it into the stands as he ran off the field. Crawford simply stood there for a good half-minute, appearing at first not to believe what had happened, then watching the replay board to see it for himself.

Boyd, who pitched in 10 regular-season games for the Mariners in 2022 and one more in the playoffs, gave up two runs on just two hits before leaving after the fifth but ended up with no decision when the Mariners rallied.

The Mariners used Eduard Bazardo, Carlos Vargas and Gabe Speier to pitch a scoreless sixth and seventh.

Matt Brash threw six straight balls to start the bottom of the eighth, almost hitting Suzuki on ball four to lead off. But he got the next three outs and Garver’s blast gave the Mariners a comfortable lead.

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