September 30, 2022: Cal Raleigh’s walk-off homer ends Mariners’ playoff drought with a bang

When the 2001 Seattle Mariners were putting together their magical 116-win fever dream of a season, no Seattle fan could have envisioned what was to unfold over the next two decades, but here the Mariners were in 2022, carrying the longest active playoff drought in North American sports at 21 years.

The franchise had gone through multiple rebuilding cycles with nothing to show for it, not to mention becoming the only major-league franchise without a World Series appearance. There had been ups and downs along the way, many competitive seasons when the postseason had been a legitimate possibility, along with many brutal losing seasons. All of it came together to form a cocktail of pain and heartbreak.

The 2021 Mariners had missed out on the postseason on the season’s final day, but they had been a pleasant surprise, a rebuilding team contending ahead of schedule.1 Seattle won 90 games, good for second place in the American League West, and wound up only two games behind the AL’s two wild-card teams, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.

Going into 2022, this year felt different, and there were high expectations. An exciting young core, including Ty France, Mitch Haniger, J.P. Crawford, and Jarred Kelenic, was supplemented by the offseason additions of veterans Eugenio Suarez, Jesse Winker, Adam Frazier, and Robbie Ray. Center fielder Julio Rodriguez – less than a year old when the Mariners last made the playoffs and ranked second among the sport’s prospects by Baseball America – was in Seattle’s Opening Day lineup, and pitching prospect George Kirby joined the rotation in May.

The Mariners lived up to expectations in 2022 as they started strong, struggled in May as they were hit by injuries, but then seized control of a playoff spot with a 14-game winning streak in July. Rodriguez made the All-Star team, on his way to AL Rookie of the Year and Silver Slugger honors.

Seattle further reloaded at the trade deadline, acquiring ace right-hander Luis Castillo and veteran slugger Carlos Santana. By September 30, the Mariners held a comfortable lead for a wild-card spot, with a magic number of one and seven games remaining on the schedule.

Hosting the lowly Oakland Athletics, who had already lost 100 games and were headed for the AL’s worst record, the Mariners had to win just one of their remaining games and they would be in the playoffs. Logically, there was no reason to be worried, but baseball is unpredictable and Seattle fans had been through far too much over the years to relax now.

It was a pleasant Friday evening at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, with attendance totaling 44,754. Young right-hander Logan Gilbert took the mound for the Mariners, making the final regular-season start of an outstanding sophomore season. He was opposed by Oakland lefty Ken Waldichuk, making his seventh major-league start after coming from the New York Yankees in a veterans-for-prospects deal at the August 1 trade deadline.2 A’s leadoff man Tony Kemp opened the first inning with a single, but Gilbert buckled down and retired the next three hitters without issue.

Seattle also got a single from its leadoff batter, Dylan Moore, who stole second base. Moore scored when France ripped a double into the left-field corner, giving the Mariners a 1-0 lead. With no outs, there was a chance for more, but Waldichuk struck out Suarez and Haniger, then  Santana grounded out to end the inning.

The missed chance quickly came back to bite Seattle in Oakland’s half of the second. Mariners catcher Luis Torrens appeared to short-circuit a potential A’s rally by gunning down rookie Conner Capel trying to steal second for the second out. However, fellow rookie Shea Langeliers then unloaded on a hanging slider for a long home run to left, evening the score, 1-1.

Gilbert escaped the inning with no further damage, and the game turned into a pitchers’ duel as he and Waldichuk traded zeros for the next three innings. The Mariners had an opportunity to score when Santana ripped a one-out double in the fourth, but Waldichuk buckled down to punch out Torrens and Kelenic. Seattle also got leadoff walks from Torrens in the second and Sam Haggerty in the fifth, but Oakland escaped scot-free each time.

As for the A’s, they managed only a fourth-inning single by Jordan Diaz (still another rookie) during this time. After Gilbert mowed through Oakland in the top of the sixth, A’s manager Mark Kotsay went to his bullpen. The first man out of the gate, right-hander Austin Pruitt, set down Seattle in order in the bottom of the sixth.

Tension continued to build as the game rolled into the late innings. Leading off the seventh, Seth Brown drew a walk for the A’s and took off on a steal of second. Capel hit a grounder toward the second-base bag, right to where shortstop J.P. Crawford was covering. Crawford fielded the ball while on the bag and fired to first, just in time to turn two. He bounded off the field happily as the crowd roared in approval.

The Mariners had another scoring chance in the bottom of the seventh against lefty reliever A.J. Puk. With one out, Torrens grounded a sharp single through the right side. After Kelenic’s groundout advanced him to second, Haggerty was intentionally walked to put two runners on with two outs. Crawford, however, grounded into a fielder’s choice at second to end the inning. On to the eighth they went, still tied.

Gilbert was spinning a masterpiece, having allowed only three hits and one walk through seven innings. His dominance continued through the eighth, as he struck out his nemesis Langeliers, got Jonah Bride to fly out to the warning track, and got Nick Allen to ground out. This concluded Gilbert’s eight outstanding innings of work, the longest start of his young career. The 101-pitch outing could not have come at a better time, for him or for the franchise.

Rookie reliever Tyler Cyr entered the game for Oakland in the bottom of the eighth. He struck out Moore to start his outing, but France blooped a one-out single into shallow right. Another baserunner was wasted for Seattle when Suarez grounded into an inning-ending double play. The game went into the ninth inning, still deadlocked. The crowd was starting to get anxious now. Were the Mariners ever going to get it done?

Seattle manager Scott Servais brought in right-hander Matt Brash for the ninth. The decision paid off as Brash retired the side in order, including strikeouts of Vimael Machin and Diaz. As the game entered the bottom of the ninth, Seattle’s offense seemed to have stalled out. Waldichuk and the parade of relievers had allowed just two Mariners to reach scoring position after Seattle’s first-inning rally.

The next man out of Oakland’s bullpen was right-hander Domingo Acevedo, who quickly asserted his presence by striking out Haniger on a slider and Santana on a fastball. With two outs and nobody on, light-hitting catcher Torrens was up.

Servais, however, had a secret weapon on his bench: Cal “Big Dumper” Raleigh. In his second major-league season, Raleigh had emerged as Seattle’s primary catcher. The left-handed hitter had mashed 25 home runs so far to tie the franchise single-season record for a backstop.3 He had been getting the day off — perhaps due to Oakland’s lefty starter — but with a chance to win the game, Servais called upon him to pinch-hit. One swing had the potential to cement Raleigh in history as a Mariners legend.

Acevedo started Raleigh off with a changeup in the dirt for ball one, followed by a better changeup that just missed low for ball two. Instead of challenging Raleigh with a 2-and-0 fastball, Acevedo snapped off a slider that Raleigh swung through for a strike. Acevedo then missed low again with a fastball, falling behind 3-and-1. Another slider, with Raleigh likely expecting a fastball, produced another swing and miss to run the count full. Tension was building on every pitch.

On the full-count offering, Raleigh pulled a slider foul down the first-base line. The seventh pitch of the at-bat was coming up, and Raleigh had now seen Acevedo’s slider three times. Acevedo continued to trust the pitch, delivering yet another slider to the plate.

This time, it caught too much of the dish. Raleigh went down and got it, pulling a high, deep drive into the Seattle night. The ball was obliterated, so the only question was whether it would stay fair. It stayed just inside the right-field foul pole, and Seattle erupted. The game was over, and 21 years of futility had come to a dramatic end.

Raleigh circled the bases in triumph, not holding back his joy. Cruising into home plate, he tossed his helmet aside and jumped into the pack of teammates waiting for him, where he was mobbed. Raleigh donned the Mariners’ blue and yellow Darth Vader home-run helmet – Seattle’s 2022 team tradition for players who went deep – and the team gathered in a circle to perform its signature win dance on the infield. At last, the longest playoff drought in North American sports was over.4

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mike Huber and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes below, the author also consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play. He also reviewed play-by-play information on ESPN.com and a game highlight video on MLB.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA202209300.shtml

ESPN Internet Ventures. “Athletics vs. Mariners – MLB Play-by-Play – September 30, 2022.” https://www.espn.com/mlb/playbyplay/_/gameId/401356548.

MLB. “A’s vs. Mariners Game Highlights (9/30/22) | MLB Highlights.” YouTube, September 30, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zftRp_EzkHw.

Notes

1 For example, a 2021 season preview from Diamond Digest read, “It’s really difficult to see a way this team finishes with much more than 75 wins. The Athletics, Astros, and Angels are all in much better positions to make a playoff run than the current iteration of the Mariners.” Nick Tucker, “2021 Season Preview: Seattle Mariners,” Diamond Digest, March 18, 2021, https://diamond-digest.com/2021/03/18/2021-season-preview-seattle-mariners/.

2 Waldichuk was traded from New York to Oakland with fellow prospects Luis Medina, J.P. Sears, and Cooper Bowman for veteran right-handers Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino. Bryan Hoch, “Yanks Get Montas, Trivino from A’s for 4 Prospects,” MLB.com, August 2, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/news/frankie-montas-lou-trivino-traded-to-yankees.

3 The franchise single-season record for a catcher had been set by Mike Zunino in 2017. Raleigh broke it when he hit the walk-off for his 26th home run.

4 After winning the wild-card berth, the Mariners won their first playoff series since 2001 when they swept the Toronto Blue Jays in two games in the American League Wild-Card Series, staging a historic comeback from a seven-run deficit to win Game 2. The eventual World Series champion Houston Astros then swept Seattle in three games in the AL Division Series, pulling off their own dramatic comeback in Game 1 before winning an 18-inning Game 3 nailbiter by a 1-0 score to end the Mariners’ season.