Twenty appearances. Sixty-four batters faced. Only one hit allowed.
When you hear about a stretch like that, your mind immediately goes to Padres flamethrower Mason Miller. Not 32-year-old right-hander Rico Garcia, who has played for seven teams and entered this season with a career 5.27 ERA.
And yet, that's exactly what Garcia has done to open 2026. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is the first pitcher in the Expansion Era (since 1961) to start off a season by allowing no more than one hit over a span of 64 batters faced.
The last pitcher to do it at any point? That would be Miller, who had a stretch like that between September 2025 and April ’26.
Garcia is also the first pitcher in the Modern Era (since 1900) to allow no more than one hit over his first 20 appearances in a season. Opponents are hitting .018 against him.
Garcia has been the top reliever in baseball this season -- even better than Miller -- based on Statcast’s pitching run value metric, which measures each pitch’s impact on run scoring. He’s at +12 on only 251 pitches thrown -- an astronomical rate of 4.6 runs per 100 pitches.
Highest pitching run value, RP, 2026
1. Rico Garcia (BAL): +12
2. Dylan Lee (ATL): +10
3-T. Mason Miller (SD): +9
3-T. Antonio Senzatela (COL): +9
5-T. John King (MIA): +8
5-T. Jacob Latz (TEX): +8
Garcia hasn’t allowed a hit in the field of play all year -- the lone hit he gave up was a homer to the Royals’ Michael Massey on April 21 -- which means his BABIP currently sits at .000.
He isn’t going to enjoy that level of batted-ball fortune all year, but it’s tough to call his season “lucky” when he’s doing, well, this.
What makes that performance all the more remarkable is Garcia's journey to get here.
A 30th-round Draft pick by the Rockies in 2016, Garcia has been a free agent seven times and was claimed off waivers four times -- including three times in ’25 alone. He also underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021.
Now, at 32 and in his second stint with the O's, he's having the season of a lifetime.