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Jaime Garcia's 2015 has been beyond what anyone had hoped for. He has even gone 6-8 innings in every game, a lot of quality starts. This year he has a 2.90 SIERA, among his career best performances. Mat Latos, on the other hand has a 3.90 SIERA this season, and has never been of the caliber of Jaime Garcia. That said, he has been much more durable and had 2 very good seasons back in 2010 and 2011. It is fun to compare the two, since they started their careers in 2008 and 2009. The durability difference is important, as Latos has over 8 more WAR career-wise, and he started a season later... but Garcia can be seen as a staff ace during his peaks.
Tonight, Garcia was great yet again. Giancarlo Stanton plated the only run vs Jaime, again punishing a Cardinals pitcher for the second night in a row for throwing it down the middle of the plate to him. Deservedly destroyed. Other than that, Jaime at times sliced and diced the Marlins hitters with that wicked slider, while not even at his best, giving up 5 hits over 7 innings. He did get a hit though, and scored a run.
Garcia had 89 pitches tonight. He was pretty great, but he hid the fact that...
| Pitch Type | Velo (Max) | H-Break | V-Break | Count | Strikes / % | Swings / % | Whiffs / % | BIP (No Out) | SNIPs / % | LWTS |
| FT (Two-seam Fastball) | 91.5 (93.0) | 8.41 | 5.46 | 38 | 27 / 71.1% | 15 / 39.5% | 1 / 2.6% | 7 (3) | 20 / 64.5% | 0.72 |
| FF (Four-seam Fastball) | 90.9 (92.2) | 3.51 | 6.90 | 16 | 13 / 81.3% | 7 / 43.8% | 0 / 0.0% | 3 (1) | 10 / 76.9% | -0.62 |
| CH (Changeup) | 83.6 (84.9) | 9.70 | 3.66 | 17 | 10 / 58.8% | 8 / 47.1% | 4 / 23.5% | 3 (0) | 7 / 50.0% | -0.93 |
| SL (Slider) | 85.8 (87.5) | -0.53 | -0.17 | 15 | 13 / 86.7% | 10 / 66.7% | 1 / 6.7% | 7 (1) | 6 / 75.0% | -1.18 |
| CU (Curveball) | 74.5 (75.6) | -4.69 | -9.05 | 3 | 3 / 100.0% | 3 / 100.0% | 0 / 0.0% | 2 (0) | 1 / 100.0% | -0.48 |
He had cramps and didn't come out of the game before he hurt himself more... it is probably nothing more than a cramp, but still a dumb move, and he's done it before, so they'll have to watch out for that.
Garcia moving around well. Had cramp. Apparently pitched with it for several innings. Had he alerted team, wouldn't have hit.
Well, darn, Jaime, no need to be a tough guy. Sure, others have done it, but doesn't mean you should too.
But mainly, I'm glad that it appears that he is not injured really. He has been amazing this season. But enough about Jaime, what about this game?
It was a game defined by home runs, since Wong answered with his own thunder, when he turned on a Latos pitch. I always enjoy watching Wong blasts, that sounded weird, but at least his last name isn't wang. He usually crushes them when he pulls the ball, no doubters. While that would've been enough for the win tonight, Jason Heyward surpassed the run production of Kolten with another home run tonight, his 9th of the year good for 3 RBI.
Source: FanGraphs
That was the gist of it tonight, Garcia had the highest WPA of the night, then Wong, then Heyward followed by Stanton. All had over .120 WPA, but Jaime had .280, much more than any other player. Other little details were back to back Grichuk walks. Who saw that coming? Mark Reynolds also had a base on balls tonight. Matt Carpenter showed signs of life, knocking in an RBI and trying for yet another double and nearly getting it.
Postgame
- Garcia didn't walk a batter tonight. 1.31 BB/9 this year.
- Jaime is probably going to be due for some regression since his BABIP is very low at .237.
- Jay, Reynolds, and Grichuk were hitless, but Jay didn't even have a walk.
- Seth Maness was a bullpen force after an assist from Randy Choate. Maness has a 2.59 FIP with a .367 BABIP against in 2015 with .67 BB/9.
- Stanton had 3 hits tonight, Giancarlo is a scary hitter. I'm not sure how any pitcher could throw something at that dude and not shit their pants.
Also, Lynn is back, Lyons down. He is facing off against none other than Mr. Dan Haren (remember when we couldn't even speak his name?). Tune in to see if the Cardinals can sweep the Marlins on their home turf tomorrow at 6:10 PM central standard time. Both pitchers are having outstanding seasons, so look for a pitcher's duel.