HOUSTON -- Astros rookie starter Luis Garcia strengthened his American League Rookie of the Year candidacy at Minute Maid Park on Saturday night, when he tossed six scoreless frames in a 4-0 win over Minnesota that snapped Houston’s three-game skid.
Garcia, who hadn’t even pitched above Class A prior to making his Major League debut last year (and later starting a game in the playoffs), has already thrown 106 2/3 innings this season, nearing the 108 2/3 innings he threw in ‘19 combined at Class A Quad Cities and Class A Fayetteville.
The Astros will be keeping a close eye on his workload in the coming weeks as they race towards another playoff spot, considering Garcia figures to be a key cog in their playoff rotation in October. There’s a chance he could make as many as eight or nine more starts, which could add another 50 or so innings to his workload before the postseason.
Garcia (8-6) isn’t thinking that far ahead and was pleased to get back on track Saturday after a pair of rough road outings.
“I was happy with the results and the outing I had tonight,” he said.
Garcia breezed through the Twins lineup, sending down 18 of the 20 batters he faced. He allowed a pair of one-out doubles in the fourth and fifth innings, but no batter reached third base against him or relievers Ryne Stanek, Kendall Graveman and Ryan Pressly. It was a rebound effort for Garcia, who gave up five earned runs in 4 2/3 innings in each of his last two starts, both of which came on the road.
“He used his breaking ball, his cutter, but he didn’t leave any in the heart of the plate,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “His command was really good. Usually, he gets to the 80-pitch mark and tends to lose something, and usually that’s in the fifth or the sixth, and he got through the sixth. He got some defense that helped him, and he was very good.”
Garcia, working with catcher Jason Castro for only the fifth time this season, has consecutive scoreless outings at Minute Maid Park. In beating the Indians on July 20, he threw six scoreless innings with three hits allowed and no walks with eight strikeouts. He has a 2.03 ERA with 74 strikeouts in 62 1/3 innings at home this year.
“Garcia was very sharp,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He pitched with his breaking ball just very, very well. He seemed like he was pitching backwards. These are not get-me-over, easily struck balls. He’s not just spinning balls in the middle of the plate. His breaking balls are pretty sharp. He can get ahead with it. Get swings and misses with it. Guys don’t see it very well. He’s a good pitcher, you know. His ability to manipulate the ball is very good.”
Garcia was able to establish his changeup early with terrific arm speed deception and good command. He threw 58 of 85 pitches for strikes. He allowed his fastball to play in the strike zone and his offspeed stuff to left-handers was a key. He had 18 swings and misses, which was one off his season high of 19.
“The quality of the breaking pitches are very good,” Baldelli said. “Then he will use the fastball maybe a little less than some pitchers, and he kind of just sneaks it in there from 92-94 [mph]. Again, the hitters just don’t see it very well.
"He was good tonight. I’m not surprised their ballclub won tonight [by] the way he threw the ball. We were looking at each other in the dugout like, it wasn’t like he was missing [anything]. There weren’t many bad pitches to hit. It didn’t seem like there were that many bad pitches that he was throwing.”