With rain -- and jeers -- pouring down at Yankee Stadium, rookie Luis Garcia got to work. He did his best to shelter the ball in his glove between each pitch, and he frequently rubbed it in his hands to keep it dry, even though that tired his arm.

Garcia is likely just a stopgap for the rotation, but on Wednesday night, he turned in a solid 4 2/3 innings -- with a career-high eight strikeouts -- in the Astros’ 6-3 loss to the Yankees.

• Box score

It’s one thing for a pitcher to face some discomfort by working a variety of roles in and out of the rotation. It’s quite another to also battle some uncomfortable weather, from sub-freezing temperatures in Colorado a couple of weeks ago to the downpour in New York.

“I think he’s done a great job in some tough spots,” said reliever Brooks Raley, who ultimately took the loss. “I thought tonight, playing four innings in the rain was about as impressive as it gets in a hostile environment.”

The night started perfectly for Garcia, as he struck out the side in the first and worked around a leadoff walk for a clean second. But in the third, he made his two biggest mistakes of the night in succession: hitting DJ LeMahieu on an up-and-in fastball, and grooving a fastball down the middle to Giancarlo Stanton.

Stanton, arguably the hottest hitter in baseball right now, extended his hitting streak to 11 games (the longest active streak in the Majors) with a two-run homer in that at-bat. He added an RBI double in the fifth and an RBI single in the eighth.

“You can’t make any mistakes to him,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said of Stanton, who has three-plus hits in five of his past six games. “Right now, he’s hitting every mistake.”

Baker did note prior to the game that although Garcia has impressive command for his age, the 24-year-old is still bound to make some “young mistakes.” He did, however, pile up the punchouts, thanks in part to the 56 percent whiff rate on his cutter.

Garcia assessed his outing as “OK,” while noting that he does have more feel for his cutter than he did when he debuted in 2020. The grip is different, the command is better and the velocity is up a tick or two. It was the finishing pitch on three of his strikeouts, and certainly something to look for in future outings.

Another thing to look for is Garcia’s elusive first win. He was on track entering the fifth inning, with a 3-2 lead, but he was pulled with two on and two out, and Ryne Stanek allowed an inherited runner to score on Stanton's double.

“He was good,” Baker said of Garcia. “I mean, he was very good. Like I said, he just made a [mistake] on Stanton. … Before that he had hit LeMahieu and put him on base, and like I said, Stanton’s a very dangerous man. I’ve seen him over the years in the National League -- I know he’s been hurt a lot over here, but he’s still a tremendous force.”

The Astros’ offense was not a tremendous force on this night, compressing all of its production in a single inning. Against a team as hot as the Yankees are right now -- with their rock-solid bullpen -- that’s rarely going to be enough.

With the score tied in the eighth, the Yankees produced a string of four baserunners, three of whom would come around to score. Raley, who was hoping to build on some recent success (3.18 ERA over his past six outings), was charged with all three runs.

Despite the rain, the glaring mistake and the loss, Garcia said pitching at Yankee Stadium was a “special moment” for him. Racking up a bunch of strikeouts was certainly a strong personal accomplishment, even if the team didn’t succeed in the end. 

"I know I could’ve done better," he said.