SEATTLE -- The Mariners hit four home runs and got seven scoreless innings from Bryan Woo in a dominant win on Saturday night, and none of that was the highlight of the night for the club. That would have been the big surprise in the fifth inning.
The Big Dumper surprise, that is.
Cal Raleigh, who had spent the past two weeks in Arizona rehabbing from the right oblique injury that landed him on the injured list for the first time in career, flew back to Seattle to check in with the Mariners’ training staff on Saturday. He was supposed to arrive right around first pitch, but his morning workout got pushed back a bit, delaying his arrival in the dugout to the middle of an already happy night for Seattle.
Judging by the reactions he got, just about everyone was surprised.
“I knew he was going to show up,” Woo said. “But I thought he was going to get here before the game. Not like, in the fifth inning. But it was good. Everyone is super happy to see him. He had a smile on his face, and got to see a win.”
Raleigh began throwing on Monday and hit off a tee for the first time on Friday, taking 15 moderate-intensity swings from each side of the plate. He said that it was more of the same on Saturday, adding a few flips to the hitting routine, but that Sunday was set to be a lighter day.
Everything’s still up in the air, so there’s going to be a lot of back-and-forth communication with the training staff and nobody has put anything even close to a concrete date on the calendar for a rehab stint. He hoped that by Wednesday he would have a more solid schedule going forward, and said he was hopeful he’ll be able to avoid a return trip to Arizona.
“I think for the most part, I’ll probably be up here for good,” he said.
But, for a player who has made a reputation of playing through pain -- including his current oblique injury, which originally flared up at the beginning of May -- the change in scenery may have been a net positive, both for his mindset regarding his injury and his overall baseball mindset.
“I made a joke with somebody the other day that the first couple days didn’t feel real, it didn’t feel right. Once I got to Arizona, it was like the acceptance stage, I guess,” Raleigh said. “Once I got there, I was able to accept it and try to get back as quick as I can, control what you can control.
“It’s really hard watching the games on TV and not being there. It’s a ‘Twilight Zone’ kind of feeling. But it makes you appreciate it a little more when you’re that far away and you realize you don’t get to do it every day.”
There was plenty of work to do in Arizona, especially given the nature of Raleigh’s injury and how trying to play through it after a short amount of rest at first only made things worse.
And, of course, Raleigh both plays the most strenuous position on the field and has two separate swings to manage as a switch-hitter.
“Different parts of the swing, you’d feel it differently,” he said. “I’d feel it more at the beginning right-handed, more at the end left-handed.”
In Raleigh’s absence, Seattle has gotten solid production from its duo of Mitch Garver and Jhonny Pereda. Together, the pair has combined to produce a .726 OPS since Raleigh went on the IL on May 14, and the Mariners’ three home runs from catchers in that span are tied for first in baseball. Meanwhile, Seattle’s pitching staff has posted a 3.16 ERA in that time period, good for sixth.
That being said, the Mariners are obviously ready to get their star backstop and clubhouse leader back, whenever he’ll be able to return. The reaction in the dugout on Saturday showed that excitement, even with Raleigh just returning to the dugout and far from taking the field with them.
“Great to see him, great to have him back here,” manager Dan Wilson said. “Still a little ways to go, of course, but having him back in the fold, back in the family, feels really good. And he’s got the ‘stache going pretty good, so I think you’ve got to love that.”