Mariners vs. Athletics: Garver gets big, Woo makes franchise history, and the offense heats up early

It was a bit of a slower week for the Mariners lineup but great pitching allowed Seattle to pull away with two close wins. The team's offense only managed to score a total of eight runs over three games but held the Athletics to just five runs and ended the series on a shutout.

Best Hitter: Mitch Garver

8 PA, .333/.500/.833, 2 H, 1 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB

Garver has been hitting slightly better over the past seven days, posting a .786 OPS. It hasn't been enough to lift his numbers to around league-average and his 69 OPS+ is undoubtedly disappointing for many fans who probably expected more out of their big offseason signing.

Nonetheless, he led the way in this Oakland series offensively, capping things off with a 403-foot home run against Athletics reliever T.J. McFarland. The pitch was a lazy sinker that ended up nearly middle-middle which considerably as Garver is batting just .154 and slugging .308 against sinkers this year.

It's unclear what's caused the immense regression from last year to now in his hitting ability. Notably, his strikeout and whiff rates are both in the bottom 15% of the league but his chase rate is in the top 10%, so he's somehow getting consistently beaten in the strike zone. It should also be known that his expected batting average of .186 is in the first percentile of qualified hitters, so it's not like he's gotten unlucky on batted balls. Is it time to hit the panic button? With a .612 OPS after 200 plate appearances, the answer may be yes.

Honorable Mention: Julio Rodríguez

12 PA, .182/.250/.455, 2 H, 1 HR, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 4 K

To illustrate just how rough the team's lineup was in Oakland, Julio's OPS of .705 was the second-highest among players with three or more plate appearances, behind just Mitch Garver's 1.333 mark. A big lift to his slash line was the home run he hit in the second game of the series against pitching phenom Mason Miller. It was an impressive piece of hitting and he took a 102.5 mph four-seam fastball 402 feet to center field.

It was a great high fastball but this is an example of just how good Julio can be when he's at his best. He's been slowly warming up, posting a .794 OPS in his 20 plate appearances in June thus far. He's still struggling to find his usual power and has just five home runs and five doubles, but it might not be long before he finds it again.