Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Garcia unhittable in debut
Bullpen falters after six no-hit innings from new starter
MIAMI — Last year when major league players got to wear nicknames on their jerseys for a weekend series, he was Jarlin the Marlin.
Young left-hander Jarlin Garcia began working on a fresh identity Wednesday with his first big-league start. The debut of Jarlin the Starter was a resounding hit as he held a potent Mets lineup without a hit for six innings before being lifted after 77 pitches.
The 25-year-old Dominican will have to wait longer for his first win as a starter as for the second consecutive night the Marlins bullpen couldn’t hold a lead in the late innings.
Adrian Gonzalez’s pinch-hit, two-run single off Chris O’Grady in the eighth ignited a four-run surge that sent the Mets to a 4-1 win and sweep of the three-game series to push their record to 10-1.
Miguel Rojas had given the Marlins a lead with a 431-foot home run in the first inning that stood until then.
But Miami managed only one other hit in seven innings off Zack Wheeler, who was making his first start of the season.
Garcia was the bright spot of a
rough series for Miami. According to Elias Sports, the last pitcher to throw six or more innings without allowing a hit in his first big-league start was the Dodgers’ Ross Stripling, who went 7 1/3 on April 8, 2016, at San Francisco.
It isn’t the first time Mattingly has pulled a young pitcher who went deep into a game without allowing a hit. In 2016, Adam Conley shut down the Brewers for 7 2/3 innings before he got the hook.
Conley had thrown 116 pitches to that point.
Clearly, the Marlins are looking at the big picture with Garcia, who pitched all of last season in short relief.
The questionable move by Mattingly was removing hard-throwing Tayron Guerrero for lefty O’Grady, who gave up three consecutive hits to left-handed hitters Michael Conforto, Gonzalez and Asdrubal Cabrera.
Nonetheless, Mattingly said before the game of Garcia, “He’s not on a pitch count. Right now he’s not on any limit. We know he’s built up to start. And as the season goes on you just have to monitor it. If it gets to be too many [innings], then you’ve got to do something about it.”
Garcia needed only eight pitches to breeze through a 1-2-3 first inning. He coaxed a double-play grounder to dodge an error by Brian Anderson in the second, which helped in facing the minimum through three innings.
It tends to be trickier the second time through the batting order. Garcia made it appear relatively easy.
He set down nine in a row before encountering trouble in the fifth by serving back-to-back walks with one out. That prompted a visit from pitching coach Juan Nieves.
Garcia got out of it quickly with the aid of Chad Wallach throwing out Jay Bruce attempting to steal third and by getting an inning-ending grounder from Armed Rosario.
The closest the Mets came to a hit was Juan Lagares’ liner to right leading off the sixth. But Cameron Maybin broke in quickly and the ball hung up for him to snag without major difficulty.
Garcia retired the side in order in four innings, including his last.
The transformation to the rotation isn’t a stretch for Garcia, who made 89 starts in the minor leagues before gaining a foothold in Miami last season as a situational lefty in the bullpen.
Garcia was able to make the return to his roots without an expected apprenticeship in the minors. The concern was that after throwing only 53 1/3 innings as a reliever, it would take time to build him back up to a starter’s innings.
The plan was to do that at Double-A Jacksonville, where his innings could be closely monitored and regulated. Instead, injuries at the end of spring training led him back to the Marlins bullpen.
Garcia was managed to do his audition as a starter with two long-relief outings, notably by pitching six scoreless innings in the 17-inning win against the Cubs.
Rojas gave Garcia a lead to work with when he drove Wheeler’s 96-mph fastball deep into the seats in left in the first. It was the second homer of the week for the Marlins shortstop, who has only six in his career.
At 106.6 mph off the bat, it was the third-hardest ball Rojas has ever hit, according to Statcast.
Rojas also contributed a diving catch in the hole to rob Wilmer Flores of a hit leading off the seventh.
cldavis@sun-sentinel.com; Twitter @CraigDavisRuns; here on Facebook