Mitch Garver lifts Mariners past Rangers in another extra-innings marathon
Published in Baseball
ARLINGTON, Texas — Inside the tunnels of Globe Life Field strode a Seattle Mariner Hall of Famer with his arms in the air, saying, “Thank you,” in the direction of Mitch Garver.
What was Jay Buhner thanking Garver for?
“That it’s over,” Garver said with a laugh. “That’s three extra inning games, man. We got to get out of here.”
A long road trip apparently required a long weekend filled with three games of extra baseball.
It at least concluded with a victory for the Mariners, capping what ultimately ended up being a successful road trip.
Garver drove in four runs and capped his big day against his former team with a two-run homer in the 12th inning as the Mariners outlasted the Texas Rangers 6-4 before 31,126 at Globe Life Field.
The M’s ended up taking two of three in a series where all three games went to extra innings. They finished the road trip 6-4 and now head into the final stretch of 17 games in 17 days beginning Monday night at home against Kansas City.
It was the second time in a month the M’s played three straight extra inning games and they’ve played 13 total this season, second-most in baseball behind only Boston.
In the three games against the Rangers, the two teams combined for 12 total runs in the first nine innings across the three games, then combined for 12 total runs in the seven extra innings played over the three games.
And it was the first series in all of baseball to have all three games go to extras since 2015.
“I can’t imagine what those guys are feeling. Three games, three extra inning games, three hard fought extra inning games. This was a series that pushed you to the limit,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said. “But like I said, these guys always respond. They’re always resilient, and you can’t ask for any more effort than these guys gave this weekend.”
Garver’s homer came after his RBI single in the 10th inning gave the M’s a 3-1 lead. Donovan Solano also drove in a pair of runs in extra innings as the duo combined for all six RBI in the game.
Garver entered the day a career .324 hitter with four homers and 13 RBI against the Rangers. He also provided Seattle with its first run in the sixth inning with an RBI single that scored Randy Arozarena.
Garver finished the road trip with nine RBI after having just 11 RBI through the first 73 games of the season. He had five RBI during his two-homer game in Chicago against the Cubs before Sunday’s productive outburst.
“I didn’t think it was going to be a strong day after my first two at-bats, but I just continued to battle and move on and try not to let the last at-bat dictate the next one,” said Garver, who struck out his first two times at the plate against Jack Leiter. “Able to push one across there in the sixth, which was huge for us to get Leiter out of the game. Just a couple more good pitches to hit in those last few at bats and capitalized on them.”
Seattle took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the 10th after the RBI singles in the top of the inning from Solano and Garver. But the M’s were without Matt Brash, Gabe Speier and Andrés Muñoz after all three pitched in the first two games of the series, putting some others in key spots.
Carlos Vargas was called upon to try and get the final three outs, while designated as the arm that would be called upon to pitch in a third straight game. But Vargas fell behind Corey Seager 3-1 and paid for it as Kyle’s brother hit a two-run opposite field homer to send the game to the 11th.
Up until the homer then, the M’s bullpen was terrific. Casey Legumina was excellent with two innings of perfect relief, and Eduard Bazardo left the winning run at second base in the ninth inning getting Kyle Higashioka to pop out to end the inning.
Trent Thornton (2-0) pitched the Mariners into the 12th inning by striking out Josh Jung and Higashioka to end the 11th, the second strikeout coming with the bases loaded. He gave up a sacrifice fly to Seager in the bottom of the 12th but got Marcus Semien to pop out to end it.
“In my mind, I was like, ‘I’m going to finish this game.’ I don’t know what the plan was, but I figured I was going to go back out just because I think we had one more available guy in the bullpen,” Thornton said. “But, again that was such a great team win.”
Long before the theatrics of extra innings, Luis Castillo rebounded with his strongest outing in nearly a month after getting knocked around for five earned runs in Minnesota. Castillo scattered seven hits and wasn’t completely efficient with his pitch count as he needed 106 pitches to complete six innings.
But the M’s got the start they needed from Castillo on a day the bullpen was thin.
The only damage came on a two-pitch sequence in the second inning when Evan Carter doubled down the left-field line and Jung immediately followed with an RBI single.
Castillo faced traffic in every inning and couldn’t figure out a way to get either Carter or Josh Smith out, but Carter was the only runner to advance past second base.
The win also clinched the season series against the Rangers as the M’s improved to 7-2 against Texas with one more three-game set still to come in about a month in Seattle.
“I think in some ways, this was sort of a fitting end to a road trip that has involved just about every guy on our roster,” Wilson said. “Somebody at some point having a big day, having a big play, having a big moment and these guys delivered in big moments all the way along throughout the trip.”
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