KANSAS CITY -- Thanks to Cal Raleigh, the Mariners’ winning formula last year often revolved around getting home runs from the catcher’s position. They used that formula again on Friday night, but this time it was Mitch Garver cast in the spotlight.
Filling in for the injured Raleigh behind the plate, Garver snapped a scoreless tie in the seventh inning with a two-run homer off Royals reliever Nick Mears that lifted Seattle to a 2-0 victory at Kauffman Stadium.
Garver entered the series opener hitting .155 with one homer. He was retired in his first at-bat, but then drilled a sharp single in the fifth before unloading his towering shot to the left-field stands that helped get Seattle off to a good start on its six-game road trip.
Garver’s big blow enabled the Mariners to cash in a victory on a night when starter Logan Gilbert was extremely sharp. He delivered 5 2/3 scoreless innings, while allowing just two singles. When the Royals put two on with two outs in the sixth, manager Dan Wilson went to Eduard Bazardo and the right-hander got Salvador Perez on a forceout to set the stage for Garver’s heroics.
The Royals applied more pressure in the eighth against Matt Brash, but with two on and two outs, Vinnie Pasquantino lined out to right field.
“What a night for Garv,” Wilson said. “Not only a couple of hits and the home run to win it, but what he did with Logan and all our [pitchers] tonight was pretty special.”
The Mariners were blanked for six innings by Royals starter Noah Cameron. But then, Mears came on for the seventh and Seattle went to work. Cole Young drew a leadoff walk before Garver went deep, taking a 1-0 sinker out of the ballpark.
“I felt like I was seeing the ball pretty good tonight,” Garver said. “Cole worked that leadoff walk and then I was able to get some barrel on it.”
Seattle certainly didn’t want to waste the outing that Gilbert turned in after the right-hander allowed seven runs in his previous start against San Diego.
“Got to keep the ball down and have a steady mix,” Gilbert said while talking about using all of his pitches to befuddle the Royals. “Mitch had a great game. Obviously, with the home run, but he [also] did really well behind the plate. Sequencing, reading what I was doing and then giving them different looks. It was fun working with him tonight.”
It looked as though Gilbert was going to get through six full innings, but the Royals used a walk and an opposite-field single by Maikel Garcia to post a threat for a potential go-ahead inning. Wilson decided to go with Bazardo and he induced a grounder to third that got Seattle out of the inning.
“I felt like [Gilbert] was laboring a little bit in the sixth,” Wilson said. “Thought it was a good time to go to Bazardo.”
The Mariners caught a break in the eighth when Kansas City had two on against Brash. Pasquantino rifled his liner that happened to be hit right at the right fielder. Then, Andrés Muñoz came on for the ninth and registered his ninth save.
For the Mariners, it was a small measure of revenge against a Royals team that recently came into Seattle and registered a three-game sweep.
“I thought we had the best of all worlds today,” Wilson said. “Our pitching was outstanding.”