Can Cards’ Garcia grab a W vs. Rockies?
Jaime Garcia had a pretty special April, which included a one-hitter and a pair of victories. This month’s shaping up to be equally stellar.
St. Louis’ standout southpaw pursues his third straight quality start in tonight’s series opener against Colorado, with an 8:15 p.m. ET first pitch at Busch Stadium. Handicappers at online sports book Bovada.lv like Mike Matheny’s squad as a 1.5-run favorite. The Rockies, meanwhile, enter as +170 underdogs.
Last Wednesday, Garcia (3-2, 2.58 ERA) was his usual electric self in a 5-2 triumph over the Angels. The 29-year-old struck out eight in seven innings, giving him 48 punchouts on the campaign. More importantly, he’s yet to permit an earned run in May.
Unfortunately for the Rockies, Chad Bettis (3-2, 4.56) knows all about allowing tallies. The righty is 0-1 with a 6.57 ERA in his past two assignments and surrendered four runs across 6 1/3 frames last week. In fairness to the Texas Tech product, he continues to receive up-and-down backing from manager Walt Weiss’ lineup. Colorado has generated more than five runs in just two of Bettis’ last five outings.
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One positive for the LoDo crowd: Garcia holds a 0-3 record, not to mention an 8.76 ERA, in five career meetings with the Rockies. Yet two of those encounters occurred at Coors Field. By now, basically everybody recognizes that Garcia can be downright invincible in the Gateway City. That shouldn’t change in a few hours, particularly if Yadier Molina stays hot at the plate. The Cardinals’ All-Star catcher owns a .423 average over the last seven, putting him among the league leaders.
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