After a historic hitless streak, Mariners' Cal Raleigh finally broke the drought with some unorthodox advice.
The longest hitless streak in baseball ended the way it began this season with some superstitions and major relief for Seattle Mariners’ Cal Raleigh. Raleigh went 2-for-4 in their 10-2 beatdown of the Houston Astros, breaking a 0-for-38 drought. It was Raleigh’s first hit since April 27, and it came in the seventh off Astros’ Jayden Murray. It also came after some unusual advice the night before gameday.
Raleigh had a notable smile when he connected on a line drive to center field, scoring on a Randy Arozarena double to make it 8-2. He also had a single in the ninth. Was it due to some atypical wisdom from his pitcher Logan Gilbert. As he looked for a way to climb out of his slump, he took the advice of Gilbert to shower in his full uniform to wash off the “bad mojo or juju” and he was shocked to find that it worked, crediting Gilbert directly. The relief was palpable as Raleigh was able to celebrate with his teammates and hopefully build off of this spark.
To read more about Raleigh snapping a historic slump, here is the full story from Mariners Roundtable writer Teren Kowatsch.
For context, Raleigh led the AL with a franchise-record 60 homers and 125 RBIs last season, leading to him as the AL MVP runner up. He entered Tuesday with a .166/.249/.325 slash line with seven homers and 18 RBIs in 40 games this year. It was clear Raleigh was in a slump – and it was the longest hitless stretch in the majors. The question now is whether that spell is finally broken and if Raleigh can take this momentum and sustain it.