DENVER • Unlucky, uneasy and, most of all, unusually ineffective, Cardinals lefty Jaime Garcia proved an unexpectedly pliant pitcher for Colorado to abuse as it revived a flat-lined offense.
Garcia took a relentless and prolonged drubbing as the Rockies drilled him for 12 runs on their way to a 15-4 rout Saturday at Coors Field. One of the league leaders in wins and ERA going into the evening game, Garcia entered having allowed 14 earned runs total in his previous 10 games and left Saturday's game after allowing 11 earned runs in 31⁄3 innings. His ERA shot from 1.93 to 3.28 in the span of 106 pitches.
"You have good days and bad days," said Garcia, who lost for the first time this season, "and today was a bad day."
The first inning was bad.
Later his start got worse.
Garcia (5-1) was unsteady from the beginning as the first five batters he faced reached base - two by quirky infield hits - and pitching coach Dave Duncan made a visit to the mound before the lefty had collected an out. Around the career-high 12 runs allowed and career-high 11 hits allowed, Garcia contributed to the mess with two mental mistakes. He was called for licking his fingers before a 1-2 pitch, and the automatic ball eventually led to a bases-loaded walk. In the fourth, Garcia botched a rundown and was called for obstruction between third base and home. The error allowed the runner to score, the only run of the 12 that was unearned.
Duncan declined to let the peripheral blunders or mile-high conditions offer any reason for Garcia's pitching issues. The altitude didn't come up postgame conversations; Garcia's inability to get a feel for his pitches wasn't metioned. Given a choice between a lack of crispness on his fastball or a lack of aggressiveness with it, Duncan said the best description was "not aggressive."
"I hate every time that he pitches bad that we look for some event that happened in the game that is responsible for that," Duncan said. "I'm sympathetic to the thought, but I don't want to start making excuses every time he has a rough inning or outing. It's the big leagues and these things are part of the game. There are going to be errors made. Bloop hits fall in. There are going to be umpires that miss calls. There are going to be a lot of things that happen that can be adverse to the pitcher. He's got to deal with it.
"You've just got to deal with that stuff."
The Rockies halted a four-game losing streak with the season-high deluge of runs. Colorado had been in a funk, losing 12 of their previous 19 games at home and scoring three or fewer runs in six of their past seven games. Catcher Chris Iannetta, whose fourth-inning homer mercifully chased Garcia from the game, drove in a career-high six RBIs and had the first multi-homer game of his career. Ryan Spilborghs had four RBIs off Garcia and finished with three hits.
All of that offense off Garcia backed starter Juan Nicasio in his big-league debut. Nicasio (1-0) did not allow an earned run through seven innings. The lone run he gave up scored on a ground out. Working off scouting reports they got from their Class AA affiliate that had faced Nicasio this season, the Cardinals got back-to-back singles to start the third inning. But the righty coaxed a groundball from Albert Pujols that a slick play by shortstop Troy Tulowitzki turned into Pujols' 16th double play of the season.
"The kid had a good, live arm," Cardinals third baseman Daniel Descalso said. "He threw 94 (mph), and if you throw strikes like that, you can make a mistake and get away with it. He didn't make many mistakes."
A Cardinals lineup that is nurturing a reputation of grinding up starters allowed the 24-year-old Dominican to turn 88 pitches into 21 outs.
It took Garcia 48 pitches to navigate the first inning. The Rockies sent 11 batters to the plate and turned six hits and two walks into a 6-0 lead. Garcia had a 1-2 count on Spilborghs when umpire Paul Nauert called him for licking his fingers on the mound. That gave Spilborghs a ball, and he turned that 2-2 count into a bases-loaded walk. Garcia said he was blowing his hand, not licking his fingers.
He offered no reason except for a fielding error for blowing the rundown in the fourth. He made his throw but didn't clear the basepath, so when Carlos Gonzalez turned back toward home, Garcia was called for obstruction.
Manager Tony La Russa said it wasn't "rookie-ball caliber" execution.
Garcia, who had not allowed more than seven earned runs in any other big-league start, had to pitch through his quagmire to preserve the relievers. Duncan said a team will "destroy its bullpen" by calling on it in the first or second inning, and so Garcia carried on, all the way to 106 pitches. He threw fewer in each of his complete-game shutouts.
La Russa visited the mound in the fourth after Garcia's fourth walk and said it "would really help us if you'll give us two more outs." The next batter, Spilborghs, tripled in two runs, and the second batter, Iannetta, crushed a two-run homer.
Ryan Franklin came in and rescued the other relievers with 22⁄3 scoreless innings.
Garcia said he was gassed.
"I don't know if I've ever thrown that many pitches in (one) inning," Garcia said. "I was trying to be fine. I gave up some hits after that first inning and it was different (from there). Tough day out there."
