Greg Garcia came into Saturday's game in Cincinnati as the "good pinch hitter." He left with a two-home run game, three hits and a career achievement.
The St. Louis Cardinals utility infielder matched his 2017 total in home runs in his first 18 at-bats this year (took him 214 last year) in a 6-1 Cardinals romp over the Reds.
Let's discuss the rest of the game with my five takeaways.
5) Tommy Pham gets a taste of the leadoff role again and likes what he finds. Pham collected three hits, drew a walk, drove in a run, scored two runs, and stole two bases. When Pham hurts you, he does so in a variety of ways. He reaches base with an intent to run, shuts down center field, and can hit the ball for power. All the while beating his chest like an alpha male. He's a lethal weapon starting to heat up.
4) Cardinal arms have held Reds MVP Joey Votto to a single hit in eight at-bats. When this lineup is putting things together, Votto is at the head of the charge. At the moment, he and Adam Duvall are both struggling, with a couple other big bats out of the lineup. The Cards have not allowed the remaining Reds producers to even get a scratch of confidence, Votto among them.
3) Miles Mikolas pitched great, outperforming my predictions. He went seven innings instead of six, struck out four instead of nine, and allowed only a single run, which was a long ball like I said. You see, with question marks like Michael Wacha and Adam Wainwright harboring around the bottom of the rotation, Mikolas can't afford to perform like a 4-5 slotted starter. He has to be better than his first two starts, where he allowed four earned runs in each and didn't look great. Today, he was great.
2) Greg Holland and Jordan Hicks slammed the door. It was an encouraging outing for the veteran closer to come into a late game that wasn't blown out of proportion and contain it. The result was a scoreless inning with just a hit allowed. Hicks comes in, mixes 84 mph changeups and 100 mph fastballs, collecting the final three outs while loading the bases. All in all, these two could make the late innings fun to watch.
1) Garcia spends the majority of his career coming in late to games and getting a single at-bat to make a dent. Lately, he's gotten a few starts and fared well, but today he cranks a couple home runs and adds another hit in giving the Cards fire from the eighth spot. That's a nice bonus.
The Cards climb over the .500 mark at 8-7, turning the tide as the finale arrives tomorrow. All the Cards needed was a trip to Ohio to bring their bats back to life and knock some of the chill off the wood. Let's it hope it continues as the Cubs await next week.
