Yankee Stadium excites Garcia
NEW YORK — Luis Garcia needs no preparation for a pressurized environment. The righthander made his sixth major league appearance in Game 5 of the 2020 American League Championship Series. Garcia started that elimination game against the Tampa Bay Rays and threw two scoreless innings in the Houston Astros’ 4-3 win.
Wednesday at Yankee Stadium will not carry the same stakes. Garcia will start in front of a boisterous crowd of around 10,000 fans in one of baseball’s most storied venues, continuing his major league maturation with another milestone.
“It’s an honor to pitch at Yankee Stadium,” said Garcia, a 24-year-old Venezuelan. “It’s obviously a big deal to pitch here, and there’s a lot of history that comes along with this stadium. I’m excited to pitch here.”
Garcia’s emergence as reliable rotation depth is welcomed for an Astros team still missing Jake Odorizzi. Garcia took Odorizzi’s place in the rotation last week and threw five innings of one-run ball against the Mariners. Garcia has a 2.70 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 20 innings. Opponents are hitting .194 against him with a .673 OPS.
Though Garcia should match up favorably against a righthanded-heavy Yankees lineup, it is unquestionably the best group of hitters he’s faced as a major leaguer. Righties have just two extra-base hits off Garcia in 44 plate appearances this season, stymied mostly by his slider and a cut fastball he’s still working to refine.
“He’s a pretty levelheaded young man,” manager Dusty Baker said. “You won’t know until you get out there. The challenges that they pose is they have tremendous power. They don’t chase much. You can’t run at them, but you can’t run from them either. They’ll back you into a corner where you have to throw something. These are amongst the most patient guys.”
Starting Garcia allows the Astros to give Lance Mccullers Jr. and Jose Urquidy an extra day of rest during this turn in the rotation. Mccullers will face former Astros ace Gerrit Cole in Thursday’s series finale.
Garcia rarely shows any emotion on the field. In interviews, he comes across as an eternally happy person, always wearing a wide smile and laughing. Whether he can keep the composure in this chaotic environment may be vital to his Wednesday success.
“You have to have the ability to shut them out and also call a timeout on the mound without us having to go to the mound,” Baker said.
Team near 85% vaccination rate
The Astros are expected to reach the 85 percent vaccination threshold of their Tier 1 personnel “any day now,” Baker revealed Tuesday.
“We’re close. How close I don’t know,” he said. “They haven’t disclosed that information. But we are close. I’m hoping any day now that we have some good news on that.”