Cal Raleigh hits walkoff single to lift Seattle Mariners over Yankees

Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times on Mar 31, 2026

Published in Baseball

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A day off?

No, just a little early rest to allow him to win the game at the end.

Out of the starting lineup for Monday’s series opener vs. the Yankees, an unusual occurrence for this early in the season, Cal Raleigh watched the early innings, trying to stay warm on an impossibly frigid night at T-Mobile Park.

But as the two teams struggled to produce hits or runs, it seemed obvious Raleigh would find his way into the game

He entered the game as a pinch-hitter for Dom Canzone in the seventh inning of a tied game with runners on the corners. But lefty Brent Headrick struck him out swinging — something that has happened far more than Raleigh would prefer to start the season.

But Raleigh simply wasn’t going to fail to deliver twice.

Raleigh stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth to face righty Paul Blackburn with Leo Rivas on third having led off with a single and Brendan Donovan on first having singled with one out.

Raleigh yanked a cutter down the first-base line for a walkoff single in Seattle’s 2-1 victory.

While Raleigh was the hero at the end, it was Luis Castillo’s outing that put the Mariners in position to win. The veteran right-hander stymied a potent Yankees lineup in his first start of the season.

Castillo gave the Mariners another quality start, pitching six scoreless innings and allowing two hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.

It was the fourth consecutive game that a Mariners starter had delivered a quality start of six-plus innings pitched and three runs or fewer allowed.

In their first five games of the season, Seattle’s starting pitchers have combined to throw 29 1/3 innings and allow six earned runs (1.84 ERA) with six walks and 38 strikeouts.

Castillo allowed only one runner to reach second base in his outing. In the third inning, he walked Aaron Judge with two outs and Trent Grisham on first base. But the trouble was quickly remediated when Castillo struck out Cody Bellinger to end the inning.

The Mariners gave their starter a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Randy Arozarena led off with a ground-ball single up the middle. He later scored on Cole Young’s two-out broken-bat single to right field.

Castillo made the lead hold up, allowing only two base runners the rest of the way.

With one out in the sixth inning, he reached a personal milestone when he struck out Judge on a slider that actually backed up instead of breaking away from the hitter. The Yankees’ slugger tried to check his swing on the awkward pitch, but he couldn’t hold up. It was the 1,500 th strikeout of Castillo’s career. After Castillo got Bellinger to fly out to left to end the sixth, he walked off the mound to a well-deserved standing ovation.

The Mariners’ bullpen couldn’t keep the one-run lead. Jose A. Ferrer started the seventh, giving up a leadoff single to Ben Rice and then advancing him to second on wild pitch. A misplayed ground ball by third baseman Donovan allowed Giancarlo Stanton to reach first safely putting runners on first and second with no outs.

Ferrer was able to get Jazz Chisholm to ground into a force out at second, but the Mariners couldn’t get the much-needed double play. With runners on the corners and one out, Yankees manager Aaron Boone called on Amed Rosario to pinch hit for Ryan McMahon. Mariners manager Dan Wilson countered with Eduard Bazardo. But the right-hander couldn’t keep the Yankees scoreless, allowing a sac fly to center field that scored the game-tying run.

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