Luis Garcia puts away smile, channels aggressive side and dominates Blue Jays

HOUSTON — Earlier this month, in the final inning of one of his most pedestrian major-league starts, Luis Garcia got mad and manhandled two of the Minnesota Twins’ best hitters. Byron Buxton swung through a 93.8 mph four-seam fastball in a 1-2 count. Carlos Correa couldn’t catch up to an elevated one at 93 mph, either.

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That afternoon, Garcia had required 16 pitches to strike out the side but still seemed steamed. The Astros’ oft-serene starter stomped toward the third-base dugout after the fourth inning of the April 8 loss at Target Field.

Garcia’s postgame media scrum spanned 56 seconds and illustrated the difference between that fourth-inning flash of brilliance and the brutal beginning to his season. Asked what changed against Buxton and Correa in the fourth that day, Garcia said he “got angry” after trudging through three traffic-filled frames to start the game.

Normally, few players in the Astros’ clubhouse are happier than Garcia. He sports an almost permanent smile and giggles his way through conversations — after both good starts and bad, during difficult stretches and dominant ones. Garcia’s cheeriness is contagious inside the clubhouse.

On the mound, he may be best served by muzzling it. Pitching coach Josh Miller acknowledged the team has had “discussions” with Garcia about more consistent aggressiveness throughout his outings. On Wednesday afternoon, Miller even volunteered to anger Garcia during the pitchers’ advance meeting before facing the Toronto Blue Jays.

“I told him, if he makes me feel angry before, whatever he can do to make me feel like that, it’s working,” Garcia said with his trademark smile.

Miller said he hoped Garcia could “channel that type of aggression — maybe not anger, but aggression — a little bit more.”

“I expect to see a different guy tonight,” Miller added.

Garcia proved his pitching coach prophetic. Wednesday night, he pummeled a powerful Toronto Blue Jays lineup across seven scoreless innings, authoring one of the most dominant regular-season outings of his career and allaying any concerns about the awful three starts preceding it. He struck out six of the first seven hitters he saw and did not allow a hit until the fourth inning, catalyzing one of Houston’s best wins of the season — an 8-1, series-clinching romp at Minute Maid Park.

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Garcia matched his career high with nine strikeouts and surrendered two hits. Toronto took 50 swings against him and whiffed 23 times — more swings-and-misses than any other start in Garcia’s career.

Nineteen of the Blue Jays’ whiffs arrived against Garcia’s cutter, the pitch on which he builds his entire arsenal. Six of his nine strikeouts concluded with it. Opponents hit just .151 and slugged .247 against Garcia’s cutter last season. Wednesday, he may have wielded the best version of it, and not only that.

“That’s the best every pitch he’s had in a while,” veteran catcher Martín Maldonado said. “It reminded me of 2021 Luis Garcia. He was filthy. Getting that reaction from those hitters, you don’t get that. That’s a good lineup, man. That’s one of the best lineups in the league.”

Garcia gave up seven extra-base hits against his cutter last season. Opponents struck three during his first three starts of this season, offering a snapshot of the struggles he had endured entering Wednesday’s start. He sported a 7.71 ERA and had not thrown a pitch in the sixth inning.

The pitch clock and Major League Baseball’s crackdown on balks forced Garcia to abandon his trademark two-step “rock the baby” delivery during the offseason, a loss that even owner Jim Crane bemoaned during a news conference on Opening Day. Neither Miller nor Garcia accepted it as an excuse for the excruciating start.

“I don’t view it as a factor at all,” Miller said. “He’s a very skilled athlete and the delivery components are all the same — just a slight timing difference without the additional step he had incorporated prior to the rule change. I don’t think it’s a problem.”

Opponents had a 1.013 OPS against Garcia during his first three starts. He fell behind in counts far too frequently and his pitch counts suffered because of it. Each of Garcia’s first three starts featured at least two innings of 21 or more pitches.

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Garcia entered Wednesday’s start throwing a first-pitch strike just 50 percent of the time. The major-league average is 60.8 percent. Eighteen of the 23 Toronto hitters he faced Wednesday saw a first-pitch strike. Garcia needed fewer than 17 pitches to finish each of his seven innings.

“That’s crucial, especially if you’re trying to keep the pitch count down and go deep in the game,” manager Dusty Baker said. “He was trying to do that before, but you can’t always do what you try to do. He did it tonight.”

Though underlying metrics painted a concerning picture, three subpar starts did not cause alarm within the Astros organization. Garcia entered Wednesday allowing an absurd .390 batting average on balls in play. Only five qualified major-league starters had a higher one.

His 5.67 FIP with a 7.71 ERA suggested what the BABIP shows — at least some poor luck befell him at the beginning of the season. Garcia’s fastball velocity dipped during his first three starts, but it spiked back to 93.5 mph Wednesday. Of greater significance: Garcia got seven called strikes and five foul balls on the 21 four-seamers he threw. Hitters entered Wednesday with an .842 slugging percentage and .421 average against the pitch.

“Every pitch, to be honest, felt great today,” Garcia said. “I just want to keep doing that.”

One overpowering outing set Garcia back on track, but staying there will require a run of similar starts. His next should arrive at Tropicana Field against the Tampa Bay Rays, baseball’s hottest team and its most homer-happy offense. Miller and Maldonado will meet with Garcia beforehand to form a plan and — perhaps — pry some aggressiveness out of him.

“That’s probably the best game he’s thrown in his career,” Maldonado said. “That’s a great team. Whatever he did today, he should do every time.”

(Top photo: Logan Riely / Getty Images)

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