The Seattle Mariners have not lived up to expectations this season, and their five-game losing streak has them four games out of a wild card spot.
The Mariners have a minus-22 run differential this year. Last season they won the third most games in the American League and had a plus-72 run differential. Cal Raleigh had an MVP-caliber season last year, hitting 60 home runs and notching 125 RBIs. This year has been very different.
He has a .564 OPS and just 12 home runs. A regression from Raleigh was very likely, buit no body expected one of the best hitters in baseball to fade into irrelevance. He is wearing a lot of the balme for the team's struggles.
"We’re not playing well, that starts with me — I’m awful,” Raleigh said on Tuesday, per The Athletic's Tyler Kepner. “So it is what it is. I’ve got to find a way to be better and to help bring the guys along, and we’ve just got to play better.
“Ultimately, we’re just playing very, very, very bad baseball in every facet of the game. We’ve got to pick it up from the energy standpoint, to the execution, to the little things in the game that help you win baseball games. And we’re just not doing those right now.”
Baseball is a team game, and he is not the only Mariner to not hold up his end of the bargain. Julio Rodriguez has also seen his numbers decline. Still, Raleigh was expected to be a focal point of the offense after the team fell one win short of the World Series last year. There is still time for the Mariners to get into the postseason, but each loss dampens their chances.