Cal Raleigh hit two home runs, giving him a major-league-leading 60 this season, as the Seattle Mariners clinched their first American League West title since 2001 with a 9-2 victory against the visiting Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night.
Julio Rodriguez, Jorge Polanco and Eugenio Suarez also went deep for the Mariners (89-69), who won their sixth in a row and prevailed for the 16th time in their past 17 games.
Raleigh hit solo shots in the first and eighth innings and added a two-run double in the second, going 3-for-5 with four RBIs.
He is the seventh player — and first catcher — ever to have a 60-homer season, joining Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire (twice), Sammy Sosa (three times), Aaron Judge, Roger Maris and Babe Ruth. Judge set the AL record of 62 in 2022.
Blaine Crim homered for the Rockies (43-115), who dropped their second straight game.
Mariners right-hander Luis Castillo (11-8) allowed just one run on one hit over 7 1/3 innings, with no walks and a season-high 10 strikeouts. It was the veteran’s fourth consecutive quality start, a stretch in which he has allowed three runs on 11 hits over 25 1/3 innings with 24 strikeouts and two walks.
Raleigh belted a 438-foot shot with one out in the first inning off Tanner Gordon (6-8). Raleigh became just the eighth player to hit a ball into the third deck in right field since the ballpark opened in 1999. He joined Mo Vaughn (1999), Carlos Delgado (2001), Nomar Mazara (2019), Daniel Vogelbach (2019), Joey Gallo (2020), Shohei Ohtani (2021) and Luke Raley (2024).
Rodriguez followed with a 422-foot shot to left, tying his career high with his 32nd of the season, and an out later Polanco went deep to right.
Seattle added two runs in the second and two in the fourth to go up 7-1.
Suarez hit a solo shot with two outs in the seventh and Raleigh went deep to right with two outs in the eighth, both to right off Rockies reliever Angel Chivilli.
Caleb Ferguson and Luke Jackson finished up a two-hitter for the Mariners.
Gordon went 3 1/3 innings and allowed seven runs (five earned) on eight hits. The right-hander didn’t walk a batter and fanned three.
