WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Once the autograph signings, posing for pictures and cardboard slides down the grassy hill were over, the Mariners still had a rather important game to play on Sunday night.
George Kirby didn’t do his part. Neither did the Mariners offense outside of another memorable swing from Cal Raleigh that left all the Little Leaguers in attendance on their feet cheering.
What started as memorable day with the Mariners visiting the Little League World Series turned into a disappointing Sunday night as they fell 7-3 to the New York Mets in the 2025 Little League Classic.
The M’s dropped two of three to the Mets just as they did to begin the road trip in Baltimore. They missed a chance to make up ground on Houston in the AL West after the Astros lost earlier in the day.
At least Raleigh provided a highlight for the night and a thrill for the kids in attendance. With the M’s down 7-1 in the seventh inning, Raleigh sliced a splitter that was out of the strike zone down the left-field line and cleared the fence by inches just to the right of the 320-foot mark. According to MLB Statcast info, Raleigh’s 47th traveled an estimated 338 feet and would have only been a homer at four parks in the majors.
But playing at historic Bowman Field, the second-oldest minor-league park in the country and just a few miles away from where the Little League International headquarters, Raleigh’s shot had enough distance. Raleigh pulled within one of Salvador Perez for the most homers in a single-season by a primary catcher with 38 games left in the season.
Raleigh was 7 for 12 with two doubles and two homers in the three games against the Mets.
“I love watching the home runs. I love watching him hold the trident. I love all our guys to hold that trident,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said. “Just some really nice swings from Cal again tonight.”
The M’s became the 13th different team to participate in the Little League Classic since it started in 2017.
The idea behind the event is brilliant. The kids from each of the teams participating in the LLWS sat in the sections closest to the field, all in their team colors looking like a pack of M&M’s lining the seats. They participated in an on-field parade before the lineups were announced and for a few minutes shared the field with a bunch of major leaguers who earlier in the day were hanging out with them just across the Susquehanna River at the Little League complex.
The Mariners embraced the outreach part of the day. The experience of coming to the rolling hills of north central Pennsylvania was praised by players and staff alike.
The final result? Well, that was a thud ahead of the toughest stop on the road trip still to come with three games in Philadelphia starting on Monday.
“Obviously we didn’t get the result that we wanted, but what a great event. I know our guys talked a lot about being able to visit with those guys and the players today,” Wilson said. “Just from beginning to end I thought it was a great event and just grateful that we would be able to be a part of it.”
For the fifth time in six games on the road trip, the Mariners failed to score more than three runs. Until Raleigh’s homer, the M’s only run came on Jorge Polanco’s base hit in the fourth to score Julio Rodríguez that should have been caught by Francisco Lindor.
The M’s missed a chance for more in the fourth inning when Cole Young worked a 3-0 count with the bases loaded, then missed a 3-1 fastball left center of the plate and popped out to end the inning.
While the lackluster offense on the trip remains concerning, it didn’t matter on this night as Kirby was thumped matching a career-high with 12 hits allowed and walked three batters for the fourth time this season. Kirby walked three batters two times total his first three years in the majors.
It was a shocking outcome considering the roll Kirby was on coming into the game. Kirby threw seven shutout innings to start the road trip in Baltimore and had a 1.44 ERA in his previous four starts.
“You live and you learn. I left some up. Got some bad situations,” Kirby said. “Just forget about this one and keep going, remember the last 10 or whatever I’ve been throwing and get back to that.”
All of New York’s damaged off Kirby came in the second and fifth innings, and it was No. 8 hitter Mark Vientos doing most of it. Kirby gave up four straight hits to begin the second, including an RBI double by Francisco Alvarez just out Rodriguez’s reach in left-center field, Brett Baty’s run-scoring single and Vientos’ sacrifice fly.
Kirby was nearly through the fifth inning trailing just 3-1, but with two outs Vientos drove an elevated sinker to the opposite-field for a three-run homer – just his second since May 28. Cedric Mullins and Lindor followed with consecutive doubles, the second of which should have been caught, to finally end Kirby’s rough night.
“They’re a good team, but I’d say pretty much every single one that they hit was a mistake by me,” Kirby said.
For the third time already on the road trip, the Mariners faced a rain delay, this one making a long travel day already longer. The M’s left New York mid-morning for their flight to Pennsylvania, spent a couple of hours at the Little League World Series and had first pitch pushed back by 36 minutes after a downpour dumped on the ballpark around 5:30 p.m. local time sending hundreds of Little Leaguers, their families and the few spectators in the stands seeking cover.
The M’s are now 1-7 in games delayed by rain this season.
Raleigh wears teammates with special catchers gear
Raleigh wore a work of art on his chest in the Little League Classic on Sunday night.
His girlfriend is largely responsible for putting it together.
Raleigh’s custom chest protector for the game featured the youth baseball pictures of many of his teammates and coaching staff put together in a collage that looked like baseball cards covering his chest.
Raleigh worked with his representative at Rawlings on the eventual design and development of the chest protector. Mariners VP of major league operations Jack Mosimann already was working with the families and significant others of the players and staff to collect the photos from when they were kids for other activations the team wanted to use around playing in the Little League Classic.
But the genesis of the entire idea came via a conversation between Raleigh and his girlfriend Hannah Shimek as they brainstormed ideas back in the spring of how to recognize the trip to the Little League World Series.
“This is months in advance, because it takes a while to produce that stuff. So just trying to think of cool stuff to do for players’ weekend and Little League,” Raleigh said. “Obviously it was a special day, so it kind of fit.”
Because of the time needed to produce the special gear, some of it wasn’t exactly accurate by the time the game finally started Sunday. For example, Ben Williamson, Leody Taveras, Emerson Hancock and Collin Snider are on there, but are all currently with Class AAA Tacoma.
An image of a youthful Rowdy Tellez is on there, even though he’s currently with the Texas Rangers. There’s a young Julio Rodriguez and a young Dan Wilson right in the middle. J.P. Crawford is wearing a Mariners jersey in his youth baseball photo.
Once the general idea was in place, Shimek took over and eventually used the help of AI to create the design idea.
“It was like, ‘Make a catcher’s chest protector with baseball cards on it,’” Raleigh said. “Not specific cards, but like, ‘Oh, that’d be kind of a cool idea.’ So that’s kind of where it started. There was no prototype.”