Last Night in Baseball: Cal Raleigh Walks it Off For Mariners

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from the last night in Major League Baseball: Cal Raleigh walks off M’s After a quiet World Baseball Classic and opening weekend, it would be understandable to be a little impatient with Cal Raleigh’s start. After all, the Mariners’ backstop set all kinds of home run records last season for catchers and switch-hitters when he hit an MLB-leading 60 of them, but he hasn’t looked anything like that guy to begin 2026. Of course, we’re mere days into the season — some patience is required at this point! Raleigh has yet to turn it on, but he at least managed a big hit on Monday, giving the Mariners a walk-off win over the Yankees in Seattle. Raleigh didn’t start this game, but pinch-hit in the bottom of the seventh for DH Dominic Canzone, who himself had pinch-hit for Rob Refsnyder earlier, with the score knotted up at 1-1. While Raleigh struck out against lefty reliever Brent Headrick, his turn would come in the bottom of the ninth. There, reliever Paul Blackburn was 1.1 innings into a relief outing, attempting to get through a second inning of work to push the game to extras and give New York another shot at scoring in what was still a tie game. Instead, Raleigh singled to right, scoring shortstop Luis Rivas and giving the Mariners the 2-1 victory. It was the Yankees’ first loss of the young season, which merits mention for a larger reason: every team that was still undefeated after opening weekend lost on Monday, leaving MLB without any undefeated teams less than a week into the season. On the other side, though, the Athletics still haven’t won a game: they are the lone winless club in 2026, at 0-4, thanks to being shut out by the Braves last night. 1,500 career Ks for Castillo Before Cal Raleigh even appeared in the Mariners game against the Yankees, though, starting pitcher Luis Castillo was already putting in the work against New York. Castillo would throw six scoreless innings allowing just two hits and walks a piece, and he also struck out seven batters — the last of those was number 1,500 of his career. This also moved Castillo into 14th place on the active strikeout leaderboards, passing Nathan Eovaldi — that’s as far as he will move up in 2026, however, as Carlos Carrasco is another 196 strikeouts in front of him, and Castillo has had over 200 strikeouts in a season twice in his nine-year career. Castillo came over to the Mariners in a 2022 midseason trade with the Reds, and has been a model of consistency since, making at least 30 starts and throwing between 175 and 197 innings in the three full seasons since, with ERAs between 3.34 and 3.64. The 33-year-old is a vital part of the Mariners’ rotation, and his performance against a hot Yankees team is a reminder why. Back in a Tigers uni Tigers fans were treated to a familiar sight on Monday night, when Justin Verlander made his 2026 debut for Detroit. Verlander began his Hall of Fame career with the Tigers when they drafted him back in 2004, and then the right-hander debuted in the majors the next year before rattling off Rookie of the Year honors, seven seasons with Cy Young votes including a win in 2011, and six All-Star appearances. The Tigers traded Verlander to the Astros during the 2017 season, where he would win another two AL Cy Youngs, and then he spent 2025 with the Giants before returning to Detroit for what could be his last hurrah. It didn’t start out all that exciting for Verlander fans, however: he gave up five runs in 3.2 innings to the Diamondbacks, striking out just one batter while walking two and allowing six hits. It took a little time last summer before he looked like Justin Verlander, too — he’s 43 years old, he might need a little more time to warm up at this point. Immaculate inning! Also in that Tigers-Diamondbacks game was the 2026 — and team — debut of starting pitcher Michael Soroka. The 6-foot-5 righty signed with Arizona as a free agent this offseason after splitting time with the Nationals and Cubs in 2025, and it’s tough to argue with the early results: Soroka struck out 10 batters in five innings, breaking the team record for the most Ks in a debut, and he also posted an immaculate inning: Nine pitches, nine strikes — the most efficient way to strike out the side possible. Soroka was on point throughout, as he allowed just four hits, no runs and one walk before handing it off to the Arizona bullpen. While things didn’t go quite as well for that group — Joe Ross was charged with six runs in less than an inning of work — Arizona was able to hold on for the 9-6 win. Wiemer ties MLB mark Yes, Joey Wiemer made an out last night. More than one, actually. But before that, the Nationals’ outfielder reached base in his first 10 plate appearances of the season, tying an impressive MLB milestone. The last player to make it on base in their first 10 trips to the plate in a season was Carlos Delgado back in 2002, and that streak is the longest such one in the last 75 years. Again, Wiemer made outs after this, ending the streak at 10, but we should still take a minute to appreciate his gaudy early season numbers. Wiemer is batting .800/.846/1.600, all of which lead Major League Baseball in 2026, and he is first in the National League in both hits (8) and total bases (16). He already has 5 runs, a triple and 2 homers, has driven in 4 and picked up a trio of walks. That’s a pretty great three-game stretch no matter when it happens, but it stands out that much more because it came during his first three games of the season. Altuve goes yard twice in four-hit night The Jose Altuve: Outfielder experiment is over, with the longtime second baseman back at the keystone for the Astros in 2026. Early returns seem to be positive — Altuve hit two homers and had four hits overall on Monday against the Red Sox, the 42nd four-hit game of his now 16-season career. Altuve singled in the bottom of the first to lead things off for Houston, then came around to score the Astros first run of the game on a double play. Altuve would single again in the third, then score a second time on a Yordan Alvarez homer. In the fifth, he walked, but he would have to wait until the seventh to score again. Which he did himself, on a solo shot off reliever Johan Oviedo, on the first pitch he saw. That was Altuve’s first dinger of the year, but he would not wait long for his second: Altuve came up next in the eighth and went yard again, also off of Oviedo, this time on a 92.8 mph four-seamer right down the middle. You can’t be throwing that pitch to even a 36-year-old Jose Altuve. He is hitting .412/.565/.824 to begin the year, by the way. A bounce back offensive year paired with a better defensive season at his usual position could go a long way toward helping the Astros rebound, too. How?! A whole lot went wrong for the Red Sox against the Astros — see: Jose Altuve’s big night, losing 8-1 — but there was still this absolutely wild tag evasion by shortstop Trevor Story, who appeared to have doubled until he was tagged out at second by Altuve. A challenge showed that Altuve had not tagged Story, though, despite it looking very much like he did — if his jersey had been just a little bit bigger, he would have been out. So hey, Boston lost, but on a night when it looked like Altuve could do no wrong, the Red Sox at least made him miss on a tag. Somehow. Vargas grand slam One of those undefeated teams that can no longer claim such is the Marlins, which hosted the White Sox on Monday. Chicago’s bats erupted in Miami, as they were already up 4-0 in the fourth inning before Miguel Vargas strode to the plate with the bases loaded. He unloaded them on the fifth pitch of the at-bat, mashing a mid-80s changeup that caught way too much of the plate to left. That would be the end for starter Chris Paddack, who exited without recording an out in the fifth inning while allowing all but one of Chicago’s nine runs. He had six strikeouts against zero walks, but it’s hard to get excited about that when he allowed eight hits and every one of those baserunners came around to score. Still! Miami is off to a 3-1 start — they had to lose eventually — while the White Sox get to celebrate escaping the winless void the A’s still find themselves in. Whoops Eugenio Suarez is a serious power hitter who can hit the ball very, very far. On Monday, he did the opposite — this is essentially the shortest distance you can hit a baseball and still have it be in fair territory. Suarez hit it so short that he didn’t even make a move to run, either because he thought it wasn’t a live ball or because he hoped that Pirates’ catcher Henry Davis didn’t notice that was the case, either. Davis did, though, scrambling to grab it, and Suarez simply accepted his fate. The good news for the Reds, though, is that they were able to win against the Pirates anyway, 2-0. Suarez might have made contact so meekly that it generated a 4 mph exit velocity, but he also singled in the bottom of the fourth and scored a run to add to Cincinnati’s lead. What a play by Cronenworth The Padres fell to the Giants on Monday, giving San Francisco its first victory of 2026, but it’s still worth taking a moment to appreciate this web gem from San Diego second baseman Jake Cronenworth. Ranging into short right field is one thing. Getting a throw off is another — Cronenworth even fell over backwards making that second part happen. But doing that and having the throw be both accurate and on time? Now that’s defense. Again, the Padres would end up losing 3-2, but regardless of the score that is one hell of a highlight. Hustle pays off Cubs’ outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is known for his power, yes, but also his hustle. He just never stops moving, and moving fast, out there in the outfield, and it lets him make some ridiculous plays by sheer force of will. He can put those legs to other uses on a baseball field, though. PCA stole 35 bases in 2025, becoming a member of the 30-home run, 30-stolen base club, and on Monday against the Angels the Chicago slugger set the transmission into high gear and made it all the way from first to home on a fly ball to right-center. Shallow right-center. That Crow-Armstrong never stopped running should not be the focus there — there were two outs, of course he didn’t stop running. That PCA made it from first to home because he turned on the jets once it became clear he would not pass the runner in front of him, Ian Happ, in the process, and then made it in shortly behind him to give Chicago a 3-0 lead in the first, is what merits admiration. There was still a whole lot of game to play, but Crow-Armstrong’s running gave the Cubs what proved to be the winning run — Chicago would pick up the dub, 7-2, moving to 2-2 on the season, while the Angels fell under .500 to 2-3. The Cubs’ starting pitcher was offseason trade acquisition Edward Cabrera, by the way, making his 2026 debut: the 6-foot-5 right-hander pitched six innings of one-hit ball, allowing no runs while striking out five Angels against one walk. A dominant performance, and the kind that Chicago traded for Cabrera this winter hoping to get a whole lot of.