Raleigh Rips Himself as Mariners Sink to New Depths: 'I'm Awful'
NEW YORK -- The Seattle Mariners are in a full-blown tailspin, and Cal Raleigh isn't interested in sugarcoating it.
After another brutal night at the plate in a 4-1 loss to the Yankees, the man who was runner-up for AL MVP just one year ago took a long, hard look in the mirror and didn't flinch.
"It's not good. We're not playing well. That starts with me. I'm awful," Raleigh told reporters as Seattle's losing streak hit five. "I've got to find a way to be better, and to help bring the guys along. We're just playing very, very, very bad baseball in every facet of the game."
The numbers are ugly. Raleigh came into Tuesday hitting a putrid .159 with 12 homers and 43 RBIs -- a staggering fall from this point last season, when he was hitting .271 with 35 bombs and 74 RBIs and flirting with a MVP trophy that slipped away by just 20 points to Aaron Judge.
Tuesday night was more of the same: 0-for-4, two strikeouts, and a front-row seat to the Mariners' offensive ineptitude.
Offense? What Offense?
Seattle didn't get its first hit off Yankees starter Ryan Weathers until the sixth inning. Ryan McMahon and Trent Grisham each delivered two-run singles for New York, which keeps rolling in the AL wild-card race.
The Mariners, meanwhile, have scored just five runs during this losing streak and nine over their last seven games. This is a team that's lost 14 of its last 19 and fallen to a season-worst eight games under .500.
Right-hander Bryan Woo was again brilliant, tossing five scoreless innings in his second straight shutout start. It didn't matter. The bats remain comatose.
Raleigh's Raw Self-Assessment
When asked what's going wrong at the plate, Raleigh didn't mince words about his own struggles -- or the team's approach.
"The approach is just not there to me. It's just off-balance swings... late to the heater, early on the off-speed," he said. "I'm not pointing fingers. I'm ultimately the worst of the group right now, and I understand that."
He also called for a bigger-picture reset, urging his teammates to ditch the home-run-or-bust mentality.
"Sometimes baseball players can be stubborn, but we've just got to put our pride aside," Raleigh said. "We have to focus a little more on the team aspect... trying to just take singles and not trying to go for the long ball every time. Ultimately, when you rely on the long ball, you're going to get a lot of off-balance swings."
The Mariners now face a brutal stretch against playoff contenders, and if they don't snap out of it soon, this season could be over before October even starts. Raleigh insists he's ready to lead the charge -- starting with himself.
"It's tough when things aren't going your way... You feel like everybody's against you," he said. "But you've got to have a good attitude. You've got to bring that edge to play every single day, because nothing's given to you. We've got to go take it."
Info from The Associated Press contributed to this report.