Happy at home, Garcia pitches Cardinals past Mets
ST. LOUIS -- There's something about pitching at Busch Stadium that seems to agree with Jaime Garcia, and that's definitely good news for the St. Louis Cardinals.
The bad news is that if the team's rotation follows form the next four weeks, Garcia is not scheduled to pitch again at home until the next to last day of the season.
In his second start at home since coming off a two-month stay on the disabled list, Garcia shut out the New York Mets into the eighth inning Tuesday night before settling for a 5-1 victory.
In those two starts, Garcia has allowed just one unearned run in 15 1/3 innings while issuing no walks and striking out 15.
In his two road starts, at Cincinnati and Washington, Garcia has allowed 10 earned runs in 11 1/3 innings, issuing four walks while striking out seven.
Three off days could affect the order of the St. Louis rotation, but if it follows form and just rolls over after those days off, Garcia would make his next four starts on the road.
His home-road split is not a sudden disparity. Tuesday night's win raised Garcia's career record at Busch to 18-11 with a 2.42 ERA in 42 games. In 43 career road games, Garcia is 13-11 with a 4.59 ERA.
While everyone associated with the Cardinals knows that information, most are reluctant to talk about it -- or offer any possible explanations.
"You don't ignore trends," manager Mike Matheny said. "Statistics are what they are, data. There's no great explanation for it, because he has great stuff. It's just a matter of him maturing as a pitcher. I know he's been around the league for a while, but I still think that's part of his challenge as he moves forward. There's no reason why. I'm certain we are going to see better outings on the road from Jaime."
Catcher Yadier Molina had a three-word answer to the question about what happens to Garcia on the road.
"I don't know," said Molina, who became the 33rd player to record 1,000 career hits for the franchise with an infield single in the third inning, igniting a three-run inning against Mets starter Matt Harvey.
When asked a follow-up question, Molina echoed Matheny's sentiments that it is just part of the growing pains and education of a young pitcher.
"When everything goes right, you see what he can do," Molina said. "When something goes wrong, he needs to figure out what to do to get back on track. That's part of the learning process."
Garcia also tried to dodge the question, one he is growing tired of hearing.
"That's baseball," Garcia said. "It's part of the game. I don't know. I can't really talk about that."
After staking Garcia to the early 3-0 lead, the Cardinals added insurance runs in the sixth and seventh on RBI by Jon Jay and David Freese. Garcia left the game with one out in the eighth after allowing singles to Justin Turner and Ruben Tejada. Following an error by shortstop Daniel Descalso, Turner later scored on a sacrifice fly by Mike Baxter off reliever Lance Lynn.
Garcia scattered nine hits, all singles, before leaving the game. He threw 94 pitches, 63 for strikes. He was helped out by two inning-ending double plays.
Tejada, David Wright and Scott Hairston all recorded two hits against Garcia, but the Mets could never mount any serious challenge.
"He had good movement and great location," Mets manager Terry Collins said about Garcia. "Everything was down in the zone. He was on tonight."
Collins also was impressed with his own starting pitcher, Harvey, who was making his eighth career start in the majors. What particularly caught Collins' eye was how Harvey, 24, recovered from the three-run inning, shutting out the Cardinals over the next three.
"I was impressed with how he went about his job," Collins said. "After that inning, we wanted to see what we had. He had to work hard, but he did it."
Harvey was not pleased by his outing.
"What I did tonight in my opinion was (garbage)," Harvey said. "I expect to go deeper into the game."
The win allowed St. Louis to maintain its lead over the Dodgers in the battle for the second National League wild-card playoff spot. Combined with the Braves' loss to Colorado, the Cardinals also closed within two games of Atlanta for the top wild-card spot.
The only bad news on the night for the Cardinals concerned outfielder Matt Holliday, who was forced to leave the game after drawing a leadoff walk in the seventh. He was reported to be suffering from lower back tightness, and his status was listed as day-to-day.
NOTES: Rehabbing Cardinals right-hander Chris Carpenter pitched a three-inning simulated game Tuesday afternoon, the next step on his road to hopefully pitching before the end of the season. If he experiences no setbacks Wednesday, he will throw a bullpen session Friday and another simulated game next week when the Cardinals are in San Diego ... St. Louis' top pitching prospect, Shelby Miller, joined the team in time for Tuesday night's game and was available to pitch out of the bullpen. At 21 years old, when he appears in a game, Miller will become the youngest player to appear for the Cardinals since Molina, also 21, made his debut in 2004 ... Knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey will try to become the first 18-game winner in the National League on Wednesday. He will be opposed by Adam Wainwright in the finale of the three-game series. The last Mets pitcher to win 18 or more games in a season was Frank Viola, who won 20 in 1990.
