For years, the Yankees-Dodgers rivalry has always been a must-watch for the fans, largely fueled by the towering home runs of Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. This season, however, the spotlight has shifted. The hype now surrounds the Yankees-Mariners series with a new twist. While all eyes remain on Aaron Judge, he now has a new challenger in Cal Raleigh, the Mariners’ slugging catcher, who has emerged as a strong contender in the MVP race.

The ongoing Yankees-Mariners series has suddenly become a headline battle, primarily due to the exceptional performances of two of the league’s most potent hitters: Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh. And, Tuesday night’s game in the Bronx, which saw the Yankees dominate with a 10-3 victory, garnered attention for more than just the final score.

What should have been a marquee matchup between stars took an unexpected turn when an X account reported that after Judge homered a ball in the seventh inning, Raleigh was caught hurling F-bombs. “Cal Raleigh was caught on a hot mic calling Judge the “king of f***ing meaningless homers” after a 7th-inning bomb,” Talkin Basabell posted on X. But hey, wait before you conclude.

Before going any further, let’s address the source of this information: Talking Basabell! While that name might sound familiar and similar to a well-known baseball insider channel, Talkin’ Baseball, it’s actually a parody account of that. This particular account is known for publishing many fabricated and satirical news.

It’s quite surprising that this fabricated piece of information got over 1.9 million views, and fans actually got indulged in intense discussions over the post. Currently, there are no confirmed reports of Raleigh cursing Aaron Judge. In fact, if we talk about what Raleigh thinks about Aaron Judge, it’s a completely different story. “He is an amazing player. What he is doing out there is crazy. He is one of the best to ever do it,” Raleigh said, praising Aaron Judge after Tuesday’s game.

Well, what Raleigh is doing this year, Judge has been doing for several years now.

Cal Raleigh is in unfamiliar territory

Even now, Aaron Judge is dominating just about every major offensive stat in the league, apart from the home runs. Currently, he’s leading the Majors in hits (121), batting average (.360), OPS (1.205), and slugging percentage (.738). To put it in perspective, Judge is just the fourth player in the modern era to hit at least 34 homers in his team’s first 91 games and keep a batting average of .360 or higher. So, that’s historic.

Raleigh, on the other hand, has quietly become one of the biggest breakout stars in the first half of the ongoing season. At present, he’s leading the Majors with 36 home runs and went into Wednesday night’s game atop the AL in RBIs with 76, all while posting an impressive slash line of .268/.383/.646. But what makes it even more surprising? Before this year, he had never hit more than 34 homers in a season. So, this version of Raleigh is completely new.

In the next few months, we will have a clearer picture of who is ahead in the AL MVP race. But, there’s no bad blood between Raleigh and Judge, that’s for sure. At least not for now!