Garver comes up big with 1st career walk-off homer

SEATTLE -- Like a fair few things this season, the call on A.J. Minter’s 3-0 fastball in the bottom of the ninth inning Monday did not go Mitch Garver’s way.

Garver thought Minter’s fastball was off the plate, but home-plate umpire Lance Barksdale called it a strike, keeping Garver in the box.

Two pitches later, Garver had less of an issue with the call.

The 33-year-old designated hitter, mired in a slump to begin his tenure with the Mariners, turned what could have been arguably Seattle’s most painful offensive performance yet into a dramatic win with one swing of the bat, jumping on a 3-2 cutter and pulling it 412 feet out to left field to catapult the Mariners to a 2-1 win over the Braves at T-Mobile Park.

As Garver dropped his bat, threw his arms up in the air and began trotting around the bases for Seattle’s first walk-off home run since May 28, 2023, Dave Sims’ call on ROOT Sports rang true: “Mitch Garver, out of the depths, comes up huge.”

Out of the depths, indeed.

“I’ve been chopping some balls lately,” Garver said. “It’s just the nature of the beast. This game is brutal and unforgiving. Even if you hit it hard, it’s right at somebody or it’s just off the barrel.

“The game gives back to you at times, too.”

Garver, who signed the largest free-agent contract the Mariners have given to a hitter since president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto took over in 2015, has had a rough start to '24. Entering Monday’s series opener against Atlanta, he was hitting .143 with 27 strikeouts in 77 at-bats. After going 1-for-17 on the Mariners’ road trip at Colorado and Texas, his average dropped as low as .134.

His barrel rate crashed from 12.6% last season all the way down to 3.9%. His sweet spot rate fell to 29.4%, and his whiff rate rose to 32.6%.

But a return to Seattle -- and a new bat in his hand -- gave Garver a chance to hone in and simplify. Results trickled in, with a home run and an opposite-field double against the D-backs over the weekend.

“I think the best thing for me is controlling what I can control,” he said. “I come in every single day with the same effort and attitude that I can. I cannot chase results, I cannot fight against umpires, I cannot blame people. This is me, I have to do this myself. Every time I chop a ball at the third baseman, that’s all me.”

Monday didn’t start out much better for Garver, who walked in the second -- one of just two baserunners the Mariners managed against Atlanta starter Max Fried -- before striking out twice.

But Mariners manager Scott Servais liked what he saw, particularly in an eight-pitch battle against Fried in the fourth.

It looked more like the 2023 Garver, whose 17.4% chase rate placed him in the 98th percentile of all MLB hitters, than the one with a 25.6% rate this year.

“The good sign for him is that he’s tracking the ball,” Servais said. “You saw his at-bats tonight, he’s deep in counts, he works the walk. When he swings at the right pitches, good things happen.”

Garver almost didn’t get the opportunity in the ninth. After being no-hit through the seventh, the Mariners finally picked up their first hit of the game on a pinch-hit single by Josh Rojas in the eighth. Seattle went on to load the bases with one out for the top of the order, but Julio Rodríguez flied out to shallow left field and Mitch Haniger struck out.

That made the eighth inning Seattle’s 14th straight scoreless frame at the plate. But it also gave Garver one more shot, and after Jorge Polanco’s leadoff single, he jumped on it, with the 412-foot blast coming off the bat at 107.4 mph -- his hardest-hit ball as a Mariner, and his first professional walk-off home run, including the Minors.

“That was pretty special for me,” Garver said. “In a time where things aren’t going my way and I’m not feeling quite like myself, to be able to come through for the team in any way, shape or form is a huge 'W.' I was really happy for that.”