On a night when Cal Raleigh continued his season of wonder, smashing two more home runs, one to break an MLB record held by a legendary Hall of Famer and another to tie the franchise record held by an iconic Hall of Famer, his performance was somehow outshined by Dominic Canzone.
Wait, what?
Indeed, in the Mariners' 12-5 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night, Canzone came to the plate five times and tallied five hits while becoming the 12th player in franchise history to hit three homers in one game. He also drove in four runs and scored four runs.
He is only the second player in Mariners history to hit three homers and tally five hits in one game. The other was Mickey Brantley on Sept. 14, 1987, against Cleveland. The last player to hit three homers in a game for Seattle was Kyle Seager on August 13, 2019, at Detroit.
To his recollection, Canzone has never had five hits in a game or three homers in a game in his entire baseball career.
Huge night for Dom," Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. "We saw some great at-bats the other day, on Sunday at home, and he just brought it out here again today. You don't hit a cheap homer in this ballpark. You've got to earn it. And he crushed some balls today. His ability to be an all-around hitter has been very apparent here in the last couple of days."
The offensive explosion helped the Mariners roll to their 10th consecutive victory. With an 83-68 record, the Mariners remained a half-game up on the Astros in the American League West. Houston (83-69) beat the Rangers for the second straight night at Daikin Park. Texas (79-73) fell to 4 1/2 games behind Seattle, which also owns the season tiebreaker over the Rangers.
The Mariners also sit two games back of the Tigers (85-66) for the second-best record in the AL. The division winners with the top two records get a first-round bye and move into the divisional round.
It takes a lot to overshadow the Big Dumper — literally and metaphorically — in any game, but Canzone did it with his own historic night.
"A lot of hits with two strikes tonight," Canzone said. "I was just trying to battle early. They were making some good pitches early, and then made some mistakes late. I got some pitches on the inner part of the zone and just handled them."
It wasn't a lot of hits with two strikes, all of Canzone's hits came with two strikes.
First at-bat: Solo homer to right field (110-mph exit velocity, 419 feet) on a 1-2 slider from Royals starter Michael Wacha.
Second at-bat: Ground-ball single up the middle on a 3-2 fastball from Wacha.
Third at-bat: Solo homer to right-center (108-mph exit velocity, 447 feet) on a 2-2 sinker from lefty Daniel Lynch IV.
Fourth at-bat: Line-drive single to left field on 0-2 curveball from lefty Sam Long.
Fifth at-bat: Two-run homer to right field (101-mph exit velocity, 388 feet) on a 1-2 slider from right-hander Jonathan Bowlan.
The Mariners, who have struggled in road games since the All-Star break, opened this critical final road trip of the season with a decisive outcome. In their last three games away from T-Mobile Park, all victories, the Mariners have scored 40 runs on 44 hits, including 15 homers, two triples and five doubles. During their 10-game winning streak, they are outscoring their opponents 78-28.
"Just having such a deep lineup, it takes the stress off of everyone," Canzone said. "Not one guy needs to do all the damage, not one guy needs to hit a homer. I think it's taken a lot of pressure off everyone, and I think that's why everyone's having so much success.
It was Raleigh who set the tone with his record-setting ways.
Raleigh’s mammoth solo homer to right field off Wacha led off a third inning when Seattle turned a 3-0 lead into a comfortable 7-0 cushion. It was his 55th homer of the season, which broke Mickey Mantle’s record for most homers in a season by a switch-hitter.
In his next plate appearance, Raleigh turned the game into a highlight reel for his MVP résumé, smashing a first-pitch changeup from Lynch over the wall in center for a two-run homer, making it 9-0 and tying Ken Griffey Jr. for the team's single-season record with 56.
Given an unusual amount of run support, Seattle starter Logan Gilbert worked 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on six hits with a walk and five strikeouts to get the win and improve to 5-6 on the season.
After working the first three inning scoreless as his teammates built a 9-0 lead, Gilbert gave up a solo homer to rookie catcher Carter Jensen. It was Jensen’s first homer of his young MLB career.
With the Mariners leading 10-1 in the sixth, Wilson lifted Gilbert with two outs after he gave up a single to Jonathan India. With a big lead, there was no reason to push Gilbert, who was at 89 pitches. Carlos Vargas came into face Jensen and promptly gave up a homer to right field that made it 10-3.
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