Garcia feeling better after exiting with cramp

MIAMI -- So far, the news is good for Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia, who left Wednesday's 6-1 win over the Marlins in the eighth inning due to a cramp in the left groin area after running the bases.

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"Today, it looked like a good report," manager Mike Matheny said prior to Thursday night's series finale. "The trainers had him in the weight room just doing some light work on his legs, so that's a good sign. So we'll just continue to watch him day-by-day."

Video: STL@MIA: Garcia suffers groin cramp scoring in 8th

Garcia (3-3, 1.69 ERA) allowed just one run in seven innings on Wednesday in earning the victory. However, he sustained the cramp while scoring from second base on Matt Carpenter's single and was forced to exit the contest.

After the game, Garcia said he expected to be ready for his next start, which is set for Tuesday against the White Sox at Busch Stadium following an off-day. Matheny said that's still the plan, but the Cardinals will continue to monitor the situation.

"Whenever there's a cramp going on, it's obviously a signal that something wasn't quite right," he said. "So we'll back off like we did as soon as we found out about it. We'll just kind of watch and see how his body responds.

Video: STL@MIA: Garcia holds Marlins to one before injury

"At this point he's just going to try to stay on his normal program and if anything doesn't feel right, we'll back off."

Worth noting
Tyler Lyons was optioned to Triple A Memphis on Thursday to make room for Lance Lynn, who was activated from the 15-day disabled list to start on Thursday -- his first game since June 7.

Lyons (2-0, 5.09 ERA) started two games with Lynn on the DL. The 27-year-old went 2-0, going five innings in each start while allowing a combined five earned runs.