Just over four years ago, it wasn’t easy to imagine Luis Garcia as the AL Rookie of the Year candidate, much less as one of the main pieces of a starting rotation trying to help his team land a Series ring. World.
But that is the situation of Venezuelan law, signed in the middle of 2017 at age 20 — very “old” for a prospect in the international baseball market — by the Astros as a product of the academy of former major league player Melvin Mora and through the scouts Román Ocumárez and Oz Ocampo.
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From then on, it was a meteoric rise for Garcia, who in 2020 made his major league debut after never having passed Class-A and even started the all-important Game 5 of the American League Championship Series as an opener. anus. And in the just-concluded regular season, the Bolivar native had a record of 11-8, an ERA of 3.30 and an ERA + of 130, which will surely earn him a few votes for Young Circuit Rookie of the Year.
Definitely, Garcia is a living example that not all pitchers who are going to be successful at the highest level have to be shooting 90 miles per hour or be in the hands of specialized instructors from the age of 14.
“I am an example and thank God, who gave me the opportunity,” Garcia said about it. “That (the promises) do not lose hope.”
Now, Garcia will start the Astros in Game 3 of the World Series on Friday against the Braves and Ian Anderson at Truist Park in Atlanta.
“It’s like a dream, to be honest,” said Garcia, 24 now. “It fills me with pride, makes me feel blessed and lucky, really.”
Lucky will be the Astros if Garcia can deliver a start like Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Oct. 22. That day, coming from a right knee injury that had limited him to a single inning six days earlier, the pitcher completely dominated the Red Sox with 5.2 zeros for Houston to finish eliminating Boston.
In that sixth SCLA game, Garcia posted a notable increase in speed, posting eight shipments of 97.0 mph or more, after averaging 93.3 on his four-seam fastball during the regular season. Garcia, of relatively few words, believes he will be able to repeat that Friday against the Braves, a lineup of hitters he has never faced.
“I think (speed) is going to be there if that’s what it was,” he said. “I’m going to do my best and I think it will be there and everything will be there, I think.”
Astros manager Dusty Baker wants to see the same control Garcia showed in his second outing against the Patirrojos, in which the right-hander didn’t walk a single.
“More than 97, you expect the 90-something pitching to be well located, because walking and not throwing strikes is not good,” said the pilot. “So I hope he’s found his rhythm to stay in the strike zone.”
Playing on Friday at a National League stadium, Garcia will have to hit, something he has never done at a professional level. To do this, says the Venezuelan who has borrowed a bat from the Cuban Astros slugger, Yordan Álvarez.
“Just because he hasn’t done it doesn’t mean he can’t do it,” Baker said on the subject of his safe ninth bat for Friday. “I think you guys will be surprised.”
The focus, of course, will be on the mound, his new way of standing on the pitching jelly, his “feints” on the mound and how he will face Atlanta’s mighty lineup. .
“Always psyched to try to do a good job when I get on the mound,” Garcia said. “I am very positive. We have a lot of confidence and I think that is the biggest key for us ”.
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