Cal Raleigh helped the Mariners beat the Rangers with a broken tooth | Notebook

ARLINGTON, Texas — Cal Raleigh sat on the plush couch in the middle of the visitors’ clubhouse with eyes closed waiting for the team bus back to the Las Colinas Resort late Tuesday evening.

As his teammates laughed, quickly dressed and discussed their 4-0 victory over the Rangers to open the three-game series, Raleigh’s face was pale and wore an uncomfortable expression of pain and exhaustion.

He had played a major part in Seattle’s first victory at Globe Life Park since 2022. He hit a two-run homer in the first inning off Rangers starter Dane Dunning — his fourth homer in five games — and caught all nine innings, helping starter Logan Gilbert and relievers Ryne Stanek, Gabe Speier and Andres Muñoz hold the defending World Series champs scoreless.

But any joy that came out of the victory was lost due to pain radiating from his mouth. He had broken a tooth while eating on Monday and wasn’t able to get it repaired on Tuesday.

The Mariners’ medical staff tried to treat it as best they could, but he decided to play anyway. It was a successful but uncomfortable evening. That would only get worse when he went home and tried to sleep.

“Never knew a tooth could cause so much pain,” he said.

On Wednesday morning, he underwent oral surgery to have the tooth removed and fix some other issues.

“It was really bothering him last night,” manager Scott Servais said Wednesday. “He played with it last night, and I’m glad we were able to get it taken care of today. So that’s why he was scratched today. Hopefully he’ll be OK [and] ready to go [Thursday]. Like the minute they got it out of there, he started feeling better. He’s pretty swollen. I don’t think he slept too much last night.”

When the Mariners’ starting lineup was posted on Wednesday afternoon before Game 2 of the series, Raleigh’s name was absent. As they’ve been known to do, Mariners fans on the social-media platform X reacted with anger and criticism toward Servais. They didn’t know about his situation. Raleigh didn’t make it public knowledge on Tuesday, and the Mariners weren’t certain he would be able to get the tooth handled while they were in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex or they would have to wait till they returned to Seattle.

In 2022, Raleigh played the final last few months of the season with a fractured left thumb.  

Of course, Raleigh lobbied Servais to keep him in the lineup for Wednesday’s game. He’s been on a tear at the plate. Over his last 13 games, he has a .311/.396/.711 slash line with six homers, 13 RBI, seven walks and 16 strikeouts.

“We’ve all had a tooth issue at some point in our lives,” Servais said. “I don’t think there’s anything worse. … He was worried about taking one off the face mask last night and what that was going to do. I give him a ton of credit. He’s probably one of our toughest guys. He’s got the right mentality for that position. He wanted to play tonight, and I said, ‘No, you’re not playing tonight.’”

While Raleigh was an early scratch from the lineup, shortstop J.P. Crawford was a late scratch due to right oblique soreness.

Crawford was a full participant in the Mariners’ pregame workout, taking ground balls and batting practice.

Asked how serious the situation was with Crawford after the game, Servais wasn’t certain.

“We don’t know yet,” Servais said. “We’ll find out more in the morning where that’s at. He felt something in batting practice. We tried to calm it down and the strength was good. But we don’t know. He’s going to get an MRI. And we’ll take a look at that. We’ll know more in the morning.”

Dylan Moore got the emergency start at shortstop while Josh Rojas moved up to the leadoff spot. He hit a triple to start the game and later scored in the first inning.

Also

Reliever Eduard Bazardo (rotator cuff strain) started a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma on Tuesday night. He worked a scoreless inning, allowing one hit and striking out a batter. He threw 10 pitches with eight for strikes. Bazardo didn’t participate in spring training after arriving with sore rotator cuff.