Cal Raleigh didn’t exactly need a reminder that teams have started pitching to him with a little less fear. But if there was any doubt, Terry Francona handed him one Monday night.
With the Mariners rolling to an 8-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds, Francona chose to intentionally walk Dominic Canzone and load the bases for Raleigh in the seventh inning. Raleigh answered with a grand slam off left-hander Caleb Ferguson, turning the moment into the final blow of the game and a pretty emphatic response to the idea that he could be treated like an afterthought.
When asked if he was surprised by Francona’s move, Raleigh kept it short: "Ah, yeah," was Raleigh's response when he was asked if he was surprised by Francona's decision.
The choice itself wasn’t reckless. Francona was weighing a hitter with a 139 OPS+ against one with a 65 OPS+, and the numbers against lefties make the logic even clearer.
Dominic Canzone has a .434 wOBA versus left-handed pitching, while Raleigh sits at .203. The plan was to create a force at every base and set up a possible double play, especially since Raleigh has already grounded into five of them this season after doing it six times all last year.
Still, strategy and message can live in the same moment. Walking Canzone to get to Raleigh may have made sense on paper, but it also put one of the game’s best players of 2025 in a spot that looked an awful lot like a challenge. Raleigh took it that way, and the swing that followed felt like the cleanest possible answer.
That doesn’t mean one grand slam wipes away the bigger picture. Raleigh has spent too much of this season fighting bad swings for that.
The homer doesn’t suddenly solve the fastball issue that has haunted him all year; his .105 average against heaters tells that story well enough. But as a sign of life, it mattered.
It also fit the tone Raleigh has said he wants to bring after the break. As he told Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, he wants to play with more edge in the second half. As in, "We’re going to come to the yard and beat your [expletive] every single day."
That kind of line comes with an expectation attached. If a manager dares you into the box, you have to answer. On Monday, Raleigh did exactly that.
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