Mitch Garver hits walkoff home run as Mariners stun Braves

SEATTLE – With the Mariners seemingly three outs away from wasting a brilliant starting pitching performance from Bryce Miller and being held scoreless due to another night of swings-and-misses and squandered scoring opportunities, Mitch Garver turned a night of frustration into a walk-off celebration with one swing of the bat.

Trailing by a run in the bottom of the ninth, Garver unleashed on a 3-2 cutter from Braves lefty A.J. Minter, sending a ball deep over the wall in left field for two-run homer and the Mariners to a stunning 2-1 walk-off victory over the Braves

Admittedly off to a slower start than he or the Mariners expected, Garver has been grinding through pregame work trying to find consistency at the plate. He had started to hit the ball hard on the latest road trip, but it was usually on the ground at the third baseman.

Not this time, the ball rocketed off his bat and was a no-doubter. He flipped the bat in the air as if it was a mic drop in relief as the crowd of 26,452 rose to its feet to celebrate.

It was really the only highlight produced by a Mariners offense that was swung-and-miss far too much and managed to squander a bases-loaded, no-outs situation in the eighth inning.

For the first five innings, Atlanta starter Max Fried and Seattle starter Bryce Miller flirted with no-hitters.

Fried pitched six hitless innings with two walks and seven strikeouts.

Miller was perfect for five innings, retiring the first 15 batters he faced with efficiency and power. His bid at a perfect game ended with one out in the sixth inning when he walked Travis d’Arnaud on four pitches. But that first base runner was erased immediately when Miller got Jarred Kelenic to hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.

His bid for a no-hitter and a shutout ended in the seventh inning. Ronald Acuna broke up the no-hit bid when his hard ground ball up the middle couldn’t be fielded cleanly by Dylan Moore’s lunging attempt. The official scorer ruled it an infield hit, which elicited a smattering of boos from fans when the scoreboard showed a hit for the Braves.

Miller allowed his first run moments later. Acuna stole second, then stole third and jogged home when Ozzie Albies roped a double into the gap in right-center for a 1-0 lead.

Unlike some pitchers who implode once they lose their no-hit and shutout so quickly, Miller regrouped and came back to strike out Austin Riley and Matt Olson. He ended his outing, getting Marcel Ozuna to fly out to right field.

Miller’s final line: seven innings pitched, one run allowed on two hits with a walk and 10 strikeouts.

Kelenic returns to Seattle

At one end of the T-Mobile Park visitors’ dugout, Jarred Kelenic turned a corner, flashed a jovial smile and exaggerated a playful strut as he walked toward a dozen or so local media types waiting for him at the other end of the bench.

“You guys miss me around here?” he asked.

Almost three years ago — on May 13, 2021 — Kelenic arrived in the other dugout at T-Mobile Park to play in his first big-league game for the Mariners. Back then, he carried a can’t-miss label as one of baseball’s top-10 prospects and, with it, outsized expectations that he would ultimately never realize in Seattle.

Why Kelenic never found his footing with the Mariners, and what prompted his offseason trade to the Atlanta Braves, can be debated, and neither Kelenic nor Mariners manager Scott Servais were much interested in having that discussion Monday, a few hours before the Mariners and Braves were to begin a three-game series.

“You know,” Servais said, “things happen in baseball. You build relationships, equity with players, and then when it doesn’t work out the way you’re hoping, it’s disappointing. But it happens with a lot of guys. They get traded once or twice and then all of a sudden something clicks for them.”

Servais added: “Jarred’s got a lot of baseball ahead of him. I’m sure he’ll do fine. My focus is on winning these games and getting him out. That’s it.”

Kelenic was 21 when he first came up three years ago. The Mariners put him in the leadoff spot in his first MLB game, hoping he could provide a spark for a slumping offense.

It didn’t play out that way — didn’t play out the way anyone had hoped — and Kelenic was demoted after just three weeks.

He was young and high-strung, and by his own admission he didn’t handle failure well.