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

The Mariners win their third series in a row against divisional opponents, albeit not by much, doing just enough to get the series win against the Athletics

By Jason Wang |
Seattle Mariners v Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners v Oakland Athletics / Ezra Shaw/GettyImages
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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.

Best Pitcher: Bryan Woo

6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K

While the bats struggled, the Mariners rotation dazzled. Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo, and George Kirby combined for 20 strikeouts and just one walk over 18 innings. Woo's outing stood out for allowing no earned runs and just two hits. He had eight swinging strikes, five of which were on his four-seam fastball and three of which were on his sinker. He also had 14 called strikes, ten of which were from his four-seam fastball.

With this outing, Woo now holds the record for the lowest ERA (1.07) through six starts in franchise history, beating out Randy Johnson's 1.21 mark from 1995. He's striking out fewer players than he did in 2023 but his 1.7% walk rate and 2.2% barrel rate are allowing him to post unprecedented numbers. He'll inevitably begin to regress as the season goes on but it's been a great start for the team's #5 pitcher.

Honorable Mention: Logan Gilbert

7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K

Gilbert had a great outing in the second game of the series despite the offense not being able to get it done. He had 12 swings and misses, evenly split across several pitches, and did a good job of limiting damage despite conceding five hits, one of which was a home run to Zack Gelof.

He's having a strong start to his year, posting a 3.12 ERA and 0.98 WHIP over 83 ⅔ innings. His slider continues to be the best pitch in his arsenal by run value while opposing batters are averaging just .105 against his splitter.

Best Moment: Mariners put up three runs in the third inning of the first game

After the first game of the series, it wasn't apparent just how anemic the offense would end up being. To start the scoring, the Mariners saw four doubles hit by J.P. Crawford, Josh Rojas, Ty France, and Luke Raley to bring in three runs. It was an absolute onslaught and some of the best hitting momentum we've seen this month.

Of course, things slowed down and Seattle wouldn't score more than one run in an inning for the remainder of their time in Oakland. The team will be heading to Kansas City to take on the Royals in a three-game series and while they sit atop the AL West with a 36-28 record, it's clear there are some problems to fix before they start to have real championship equity. Of all the current MLB division leaders, the Mariners have the lowest winning percentage at 56.3%.

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