ARLINGTON -- Mitch Garver didn’t think he was in line for a strong day with two strikeouts in his first two at-bats. But then he singled in the game-tying run in the sixth inning and drove in another run with a single in the 10th.
The day turned from borderline forgettable to memorable for Garver in his next at-bat as he belted a two-run home run in the 12th inning to help the Mariners to a 6-4 victory over the Rangers on Sunday afternoon at Globe Life Field.
Asked if it felt good, Garver simply smiled and said: “You said it. It did feel good.”
It capped off a 10-game road trip that featured more highs than lows for the Mariners and Garver himself. The Mariners went 6-4 as a team with series victories over the Cubs and Rangers.
For Garver, it’s a trip that started with him hitting his 100th career home run on a two-homer night in the Mariners’ 9-4 victory over the Cubs on June 20 at Wrigley Field and ended with his heroics on Sunday. In between, Garver had to undergo tests on his jaw after he took a foul ball off his mask and was knocked out of Thursday’s game in Minnesota.
Garver wasn’t sure how to describe it all.
“I don’t know. It’s been such a long trip,” he said. “Just I’d say team-wise, overall, this has been a really strong road trip for us. The pitching was there, the hitting was there, scored a ton of runs throughout this road trip. They were at a premium today, but that’s a good pitching staff over there, both on the starting side and bullpen.”
The Mariners were down 1-0 going into the sixth and hadn’t gotten much going against Rangers starter Jack Leiter. Garver, though, got them on the board with a two-out single to score Randy Arozarena, who reached on a single and moved to second on a deep fly ball to center from Dominic Canzone.
Neither team scored again until the 10th when Donovan Solano and Garver had back-to-back RBI singles to give the Mariners a 3-1 lead. However, that was erased in the bottom half of the inning on a two-run blast by Rangers slugger Corey Seager.
In the 12th, the Mariners took a commanding lead courtesy of Garver. Arozarena scored on an RBI groundout from Solano, and then Garver swatted a 437-foot home run over the left-center-field fence against his former team.
It was the third-longest home run in extra innings by a Mariner in the Statcast Era (2015-present), trailing only Kyle Seager’s 446-foot homer on Aug. 22, 2021 at Houston and Logan Morrison’s 440-foot homer on May 8, 2015 vs. Oakland.
“Garver, some great at-bats and hitting the ball hard, you know, he’s been swinging the bat well,” manager Dan Wilson said. “It always feels good in front of the old team, but really good to see that from Garv. He’s a grinder. He’s worked hard and, again, making the most of those opportunities and executing them. Those were some huge RBIs for this team today.”
Garver had five RBIs in the road-trip opener at Chicago and four more on Sunday. The nine RBIs over the road trip almost matched his season total going into it (11).
Garver emerged as the star of the day, but the pitching staff did its part too. Starter Luis Castillo allowed one run on seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts over six innings. It was Castillo’s 10th quality start of the season.
The bullpen also shined outside of Seager’s home run. Right-hander Trent Thornton closed out the final two innings to earn the win. After Garver’s home run, Thornton said his mindset shifted to attacking the Rangers' lineup like there wasn’t an automatic runner on second.
“It’s to put that guy out of your mind and attack the 1-2-3 guys in the lineup,” he said. “We were able to get the job done.”
For the Mariners, extra-inning games have become somewhat normal of late. This team had three straight games go to extra innings less than a month ago. Seattle went 1-2 during a stretch from May 29-31 that included the series finale against Washington and the first two games in a series against Minnesota.
“I can’t imagine what those guys were feeling,” Wilson said. “This was a series that pushed you to the limit, but these guys always respond.”