Last night in baseball: Meriners won the weder cup as Rale Hit Number 50

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from the weekend in Major League Baseball:

Mariners win Vedder Cup

We have our first-ever winner of the Vedder Cup. The official version, anyway. Your 2025 Mariners defeated the Padres on Monday, making them the inaugural champions for this two-team competition. Fittingly, the trophy is a guitar:

That’s a custom 1963 Fender Telecaster, and Vedder himself played it a bit before the game — MLB has full details of its creation, too. While there are actually two games left in the Cup, the outcome was decided early, since San Diego hasn’t actually defeated Seattle at all in 2025. With the Mariners up 4-0 in the series, and there not being any way for the Padres to come back, the trophy went to the city where Pearl Jam was born.

Cal Raleigh has been a massive part of Seattle’s success this season, and Monday was no different. Big Dumper hit his 50th homer of the year in the first inning, and it was a big one. Not necessarily in terms of distance, but importance: Raleigh became just the second-ever switch-hitter to reach the 50-homer mark with the blast, the first-ever primary catcher to hit 50 homers and just the second Mariners hitter to do it, after Ken Griffey Jr. 

If he gets to 56, he’ll tie Griffey for the most in Mariners history, and four more ties him with Mantle for the most by a switch-hitter. He’s got over a month to pull off those two feats, and more besides.

While Raleigh struck early, the Mariners didn’t settle in for the W until a bit later. A 5-run fifth put them up 9-4, and while San Diego scored a couple more, it wasn’t enough.

The Mariners are not just Vedder Cup victors, but with a win and both the Royals and Guardians losing, they also managed to put more distance between themselves and the teams closest to their wild card spot. The Padres, meanwhile, slipped back into second place in the NL West, a game behind the victorious Dodgers; San Diego is 3.5 up in the wild card race, though.

Slammin Langeliers

There is a catcher leading the majors in homers since the All-Star break, but it’s somehow not Cal Raleigh. It’s Athletics’ backstop Shea Langeliers, who has 17 of them since the break. At least, he has 17 as of Monday night, when he hit a grand slam to put the A’s up 6-2 over the AL-leading Tigers.

In 34 games since the All-Star break, Langeliers is batting .322/.349/.748 with 17 homers, and for the season he’s now up to .262/.308/.544 with 29 homers, tying his career-high in the latter, set in 2024. Given the way he’s swinging the bat, he’s got at least one more long ball in him this season, yeah?

Betts vs. Greene, who ya got?

Mookie Betts and Hunter Greene both made excellent defensive plays in Monday’s Dodgers-Reds tilt, so here they are for your viewing and ranking pleasure. 

First up is Betts, who you should remember moved off of shortstop and became a second baseman in the minors, then went to the outfield and won Gold Gloves out there before a return to the infield borne out of necessity. For both him and the Dodgers, really. The instincts and range are still there, however, and he’s a better shortstop now than he was when he was younger and spryer thanks to preparation. Observe:

The throw is nearly as impressive, as well, since Betts turned and fired a laser to first without taking a huge hop or moving his body overly much. Just pure power from that arm and motion.

As for Greene, well, easier seen than explained.

He spun and caught it under his body because his glove hand was not naturally the one with the easier angle on the ball, then turned and fired — accurately! — to second base, starting a double play. Betts, you did something great, but there’s no contest here. Greene is the winner.

The Dodgers won the game, though, which was vital for them since it put them up on the Padres by a game in the NL West, and bad news for the Reds, as they failed to keep pace with the Mets in the NL wild card race: New York defeated the Phillies, 13-3, and picked up another game on Cincy in the process.

Phil Mickelson would be proud

Get it? Because Alec Burleson is also a lefty? Alright whatever the important thing is that Burleson golfed this ball. And also that it was a walk-off homer for the Cardinals over the Pirates, but the golf thing was really supposed to be the emphasis here.

Caminero’s come up

Junior Caminero began the month of August on pace for 41 homers. That’s a great season for anyone, never mind someone who turned 22 over the summer in their first full year of MLB action. His August has been phenomenal, though, to the point that he’s now on pace for 49 homers, and the month isn’t even over yet.

The Rays’ third baseman hit dingers No. 11 and 12 of the month on Monday against the Guardians — the third consecutive game in which he’s dingered, too — helping power Tampa Bay to a 9-0 victory. 

Caminero is nearly on pace for a 50-homer season, which would be wild for a couple of reasons. For one, he’s all of 22 years old (and actually in his age-21 season, given how much of it he was merely 21 for), and as said, in his first full MLB campaign. Second, there are already five others players on pace for 50 homers: there have never been five players to hit 50 homers in the same season before. And now we’re inching closer to there being six players on pace for 50? Not all of them might get there, but even the potential for that is stunning.

Cleveland, by the way, was shut out for the third consecutive game, have been shut out for 28 consecutive innings, have lost six in a row and are now six back of the third wild card spot. Their season isn’t mathematically over, but it’s feeling more like it’s done every day of late.

Gunnar!

The Orioles would lose to the Red Sox, 4-3, but you can still take the time to be impressed by this Gunnar Henderson grab. An over-the-shoulder catch in which he had to reach out to snag it out of midair as the rest of his body actually moved away from the ball.

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