Last night, we watched Justin Verlander chug into the late innings like a workhorse. He was over 100 pitches after seven innings, and manager Jim Leyland didn’t hesitate to send him back out for the eighth. In contrast, Jamie Garcia is rarely worked that hard -- he’s thrown over 100 pitches in just eight of his 32 starts, and his season high is only 107 pitches.
Cardinals vs. Phillies: Jamie Garcia Has First High-Stress Inning
When he’s on, he’s on, though, and he doesn’t need to throw a lot of pitches. Garcia threw two complete-game shutouts this year with just 102 pitches in both of those games. It looked like he was on that pace after throwing just 51 pitches to complete five shutout innings.
But after he retired Cole Hamels and Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley hit the sixth pitch of his at-bat for a single, and after a wild pitch and an intentional walk, it took a Ryan Howard groundout to end the inning. Garcia threw 23 pitches in the sixth, his most strenuous inning of the game so far.
Still, he’s up to only 74 on the game through six innings. The Phillies had an aggressive game plan, it seems, and it isn’t working so far.
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