CHICAGO — Cal Raleigh broke Hall of Famer Johnny Bench’s 1970 record for home runs by a catcher before the All-Star break, hitting his major league-leading 28th and 29th in the Seattle Mariners’ 9-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Friday.
Raleigh put Seattle ahead and moved past Bench in the seventh inning with No. 29, a drive to the back of the left-field bleachers off Caleb Thielbar.
“Any time you’re mentioned in even the same sentence with one of the best, if not the best ever do it is a special thing,” Raleigh said. “I’m just very grateful. He’s one heck of a player or was one heck of a player. And like I said, just very, very happy about it.”
Raleigh needed only 73 games to break the record that Bench set in 87 games. The Seattle star shattered the mark with 22 games to spare before the All-Star game. Barry Bonds holds the overall record with 39 for San Francisco in 2001.
Raleigh sent his first homer just over the basket in the first off Matthew Boyd.
The 28-year-old slugger had three hits in his sixth multi-homer game of the season. He drove in three runs to push his season total to 63.
Bench was a 14-time All-Star in his 17-season career with the Cincinnati Reds. In 1970, at age 22, he became the youngest player to win the National League MVP award. He led the NL with 45 homers and drove in 148 runs.
Seattle’s Mitch Garver, a catcher by position, hit two homers and drove in five runs as a designated hitter. The duo stole the thunder from the NL-Central leading Chicago on a day when Sammy Sosa returned to Wrigley Field for the first time in over 20 years.
Raleigh and Garver are the first pair of primary catchers for a team to each homer twice since Joe Ferguson and Steve Yeager did it for the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 1979 home victory over Houston.
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