> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Cal Raleigh Makes History as Mariners Obliterate Tarik Skubal, Tigers 12-3 - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/cal-raleigh-history-mariners-obliterate-tigers-tarik-skubal/ - Published: 2025-07-12T06:13:41.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T05:37:10.000Z - Author: Callaghan Bluechel - Tags: Analysis, Mariners, Luis Castillo, Eduard Bazardo, Gabe Speier, Juan Burgos, Jorge Polanco, Donovan Solano, J.P. Crawford, Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh, Luke Raley, Ben Williamson [Embed from Getty Images](http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/2224714237?ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) DETROIT, Mich. – Cathartic is the best word to describe it. The Seattle Mariners came off perhaps their ugliest defeat of the year in New York to torch the Detroit Tigers 12-3 on Friday, combining home run pop with the ability to scratch together runs on base hits on their way to a resounding victory. There was catharsis for a lot of those involved. For Julio Rodriguez, who teed off on his first home run since June 23 against the Minnesota Twins. For Cal Raleigh, who punctuated his very much still alive MVP campaign with two homers, including a grand slam (and is now at 38 home runs, one home run shy of Barry Bonds’ first-half record for homers). And for the whole team, who came back from a truly heart-wrenching defeat against the New York Yankees the day prior. It’s a good example of what players mean when they say that having a short memory during the season is a good thing. Now, yesterday’s awful defeat is deep in the rear-view mirror, and the M’s look forward to two more games in Detroit against the best team in MLB. ### Both Sides Plate Early Runs Against Strong Pitching Friday’s series opener featured a premier pitching matchup between Mariners starter Luis Castillo and Tigers ace Tarik Skubal. Castillo pitched five strong innings, giving up just one run, but the M’s managed to chase a frustrated Skubal – and hand him just his third loss of the season – with some small ball in the early innings and a big fly from Rodriguez in the fifth. Both pitchers had scoreless first innings, working around runners on first with double plays. But with two outs in the second, the M’s put the first run on the board. First, Polanco fouled off three really good two strike pitches from Skubal before cracking a slider in the dirt into left field for a single. Then Donovan Solano slapped a 1-2 curveball into center, leading to a chaotic turn of events. Detroit center fielder Parker Meadows got a slow jump on the ball and tried to dive anyway to save it – but only threw his body past the path of the ball and allowed it to roll all the way to the wall. Polanco easily scored and Solano ended up at third with a triple. Dylan Moore flew out to end the inning and the bottom half saw the Tigers ground into another double play. The third was quick, as was the top of the fourth, with no offensive fireworks. The Tigers put together a rally in the bottom of the fourth. Early on in the frame, it seemed Castillo was struggling to get his changeup and sinker over the plate, so the Tigers could sit fastball and get some good contact. Gleyber Torres walked to lead off the inning and then Wenceel Pérez cracked a single to right on a 2-1 middle-in fastball. Then Castillo seemed to settle back in, regaining his control. Two good low-and-away changeups got Riley Greene to a 1-1 count and Greene popped out two pitches later. Spencer Torkelson waved at a fastball over the zone for a strikeout. Castillo threw two more well-placed low changeups low to Zach McKinstry to once again get to 1-1\. Then he got the business end of a borderline call on a fastball on the upper outside corner before hitting his spot on the same pitch to get to 2-2. Two pitches later, McKinstry took a swing on a low changeup and foul tipped it into Raleigh’s glove. It appeared the inning was over – but second base umpire John Libka took a look at the ball, noticed the dirt on it, and the umpiring crew ruled that Raleigh didn’t catch it. McKinstry got another chance. McKinstry took a swing at right down the middle and crushed a liner into right. Torres scored easily and Pérez went to third. Then McKinstry easily stole second and Castillo’s next pitch to Dillon Dingler hit him, loading the bases. But Castillo struck out Meadows on the high heat to end the inning with the game tied at one. ### Titanic Julio Blast Puts M’s Up 4-1 The Mariners responded with a strong inning of their own in the top of the fifth. Solano worked a walk on eight pitches, as Skubal’s relative lack of control allowed the M’s a baserunner. After a Moore flyout, Ben Williamson cracked a grounder down the line. McKinstry grabbed the ball at the hot corner and fired over to first for an impressive second out, but Solano was at second. J.P. Crawford came up for his third plate appearance, having reached on a hit by pitch and a walk. The Seattle shortstop got ahead 2-1 before Skubal left a sinker out over the plate. Crawford slapped a liner to left center, easily scoring Solano on the long single to put the Mariners back out ahead by a 2-1 score. Julio Rodriguez was the next Mariner batter. After two good strikes and a ball, Skubal left a changeup right down the middle. Rodriguez, whose struggles have been much discussed over the last few weeks, took a big swing. The Mariners’ center fielder hasn’t hit what’s called the “launch angle sweet spot” – a launch angle between eight and 32 degrees – very much this season. His 28 percent launch angle sweet spot rate coming into the game is just fifth percentile. He’s seen a lot of mistake pitches this season, but hasn’t capitalized on nearly enough of them. But this time, there was no counter-mistake from Rodriguez. He struck it with a thunderous crack, 110 miles an hour off the bat and at a 30 degree angle in the air. The cavernous Comerica Park was no match for the mammoth blast as it flew ten rows back in the stands beyond the bullpen to deep left center as the Mariners extended their lead to 4-1. ### Tigers Chase Castillo, Bazardo Clamps Down Luis Castillo had pitched five really strong innings, but he was at 92 pitches after those frames. Still, Dan Wilson brought him out for the sixth. Pérez grounded a perfectly placed grounder in the left side hole for a leadoff infield single before stealing second and getting to third on an errant throw by Mitch Garver. Greene then cracked a fly ball to right center field. It was catchable for Rodriguez, but with Moore also charging in hard, the two Mariner outfielders near the trajectory of the hit slowed down as it landed on the grass and rolled to the wall. By the time it got back into the infield, Greene stood at third with a triple and Pérez had easily scored to cut the lead to 4-2. At this point, Wilson went to the bullpen, bringing on Eduard Bazardo to get out of the sixth-inning jam. Torkelson came up to the plate but quickly fell behind to a 1-2 count. The next pitch was a fastball on the inside corner and Torkelson turned on it but got just a bit under it, sending a fly ball about two feet in front of the left center field fence for a sacrifice fly to make it 4-3. Although McKinstry walked and stole second, Bazardo got two flyouts to end the inning and then spun a one-two-three seventh. ### Raleigh, Still in MVP Race, Crushes Two Homers Yesterday I – rather prematurely – wrote a section about an Aaron Judge MVP being a near-certainty. Cal Raleigh had other plans tonight. Maybe, just maybe, for the sake of Seattle fans, I should keep that jinx going. But in all seriousness, after a mostly rough series against the Yankees, he and the Mariners tore the Tigers apart in the late innings and proved the old adage that you’re never as bad as you look when you lose. In the eighth inning, Tigers southpaw Tyler Holton pitched Raleigh away, not coming further inside than a pitch in the dirt (but on the inside edge). On a 2-2 count, he threw a changeup an inch off the outer edge of the plate. Raleigh flicked his bat outwards in a seemingly defensive swing. Yet the ball flew off his bat to deep left center. Greene jogged backwards as the ball kept flying, reaching the warning track and looking up just to watch it land a few feet beyond the fence for home run No. 37\. The Mariners had an insurance run, going up 5-3. By the end of the next inning, nobody was talking about insurance runs. After a quick bottom half from Gabe Speier, righty Carlos Hernández came on to pitch the top of the ninth. Polanco led off with a grounder through the right side for a single. Hernández threw Solano a second pitch meatball and it ended up in the left field grass. Luke Raley pinch-hit for Moore and drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases. Then Ben Williamson was the third Mariner to find the outfield grass, grounding a single to score one. Tigers manager AJ Hinch brought on lefty Brant Hurter to face Crawford with hopes of stopping the bleeding. On a 1-2 pitch, Crawford sent a grounder towards second. If the infield had been playing straight-up, it would have been an easy play for Gleyber Torres at second. But the infield was pressed up on the grass. The ball skipped past Torres’ glove as he lifted it too high and went into center field to score two runs to make it 8-3. After Rodriguez walked on four pitches, Raleigh was up with the bases loaded and still nobody out. After a couple balls off the plate and a couple foul balls, Hurter tossed a sinker towards the bottom of the zone. Raleigh’s first homer was a wall-scraper; his second was a skyscraper. He swung on the pitch and launched it high into the seats in left field, drawing cheers from the road crowd. The ball left in a hurry, and with the sound of the bat, it was instantly clear to everyone what had just happened, and the star catcher had set a new American League record for the most home runs before the All-Star break. *Get out the rye bread and mustard!* The Mariners were now up 12-3\. And there was still nobody out. Arozarena walked and Mastrobuoni – who had pinch-run for Polanco earlier in the inning – singled two batters later. At this point, Hinch took Hurter out of the game and brought in catcher Jake Rogers to get the last two outs of the inning. Juan Burgos pitched through the ninth without giving up a run, despite allowing two baserunners. A day after the worst loss of the season, the Mariners had one of their most resounding wins. ### M’s Remain Skubal’s Kryptonite The last time the Mariners faced off against Tarik Skubal on April 2, he went 5 2/3 innings and gave up three runs – just enough to get the loss against Seattle. Since then, he had tossed 16 starts, pitched 105 1/3 innings, and gave up 19 runs for an ERA of just 1.62 during that time. Skubal went 10-0 during that span, leading his team to the best record in MLB going into the All-Star Break. But it seems that he just struggles to find a groove against the Mariners this season. After a tough, close loss to the M’s early in the year, he has followed it up with giving up four in five innings. He now has a 5.91 ERA against Seattle in 2025. Although Skubal had some pretty good stuff at points tonight – mixing his pitches incredibly against Raleigh in the third (with two early low changeups followed by a fastball up that Raleigh was late on) and striking out Garver on a beautifully placed changeup in the fourth – he left just enough mistakes out over the plate to give the Mariners a chance to capitalize. And unlike a lot of cases recently, the Mariners bats jumped on it whenever he erred. One of the most cathartic elements of today’s win was Rodriguez’ fifth inning blast –- and that came on a changeup right in the middle of the plate - a location that Skubal was certainly avoiding during his first few innings of good work. But even when he was managing the Mariners well, Skubal still had some location issues, letting two Mariners reach base with a walk and hitting J.P. Crawford to start off the game. They just caught up to him fully in the fifth inning. ### On Deck The last two American League Wild Card spots are shaping up to be a three-team battle, at least for now. The Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays, moved up to 51-45, and are in the second wild card spot. Tampa Bay is now a half game back of Boston at 50-45 and sit in the third wild card spot. And the Seattle Mariners are now a half game back of Tampa Bay, still on the outside looking in despite the thundering victory. All three of those teams have two more games before the All-Star Break. Boston and Tampa Bay play each other twice, while the M’s have two more to round out the series against the Detroit Tigers. For what it’s worth, the Astros lost their fourth straight today, falling 7-3 to the Texas Rangers. It’s the first time the Astros lost on the same day the Mariners won since June 8.