The Cardinals and left-handed pitcher Jaime Garcia came to terms on a four-year contract with two club options for 2016 and 2017. The deal is worth $27 million over its first four years and could grow to $49.5 million over six.

This deal follows a formula the club used earlier with Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina. Garcia’s salary is now set for his three arbitration eligible years and he remains under team control for as many as three of his potential free agent seasons as well. In return, the player receives earlier financial security.

Garcia, 25, had established considerable momentum coming into the negotiations. He was 9-3 with a 3.23 ERA during the first half of the season. That came on the heels of one of the best rookie campaigns in 2010 where he was 13–8 with a 2.70 ERA (fourth in the National League), ranking not only among top rookie pitchers, but also the top Major League pitchers in several categories.

Garcia’s career mark is 27–16, with a 3.27 ERA and 296 strikeouts in 374 innings. In 2010, his 2.70 ERA was the lowest by a Cardinals’ left-handed starter since John Tudor recorded a 2.40 ERA in 22 starts (25 games) during 1990.

Link to The Cardinal Nation Blog’s top 20 stories of the year countdown

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In 18 past St. Louis Cardinals post-season games, the team’s starting pitcher went at least seven innings while allowing no runs. Jaime Garcia was the 19^th. He was also third to pitch exactly seven innings and that provides a very interesting observation. Those three contests in which the starter was pulled after seven while pitching a shutout are the only ones of the 19 in which the Cardinals went on to lose the game.

Unfortunately, Garcia’s Thursday performance most closely mirrored Danny Cox’ outing in the sixth game of the 1985 World Series. I don’t need to remind any long-time Cardinals fans the significance of the Don Denkinger game.

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitchers, post-season, seven or more innings, no runs allowed

Jason Motte took the Cardinals’ seventh blown save at home in the club’s post-season history. It was only the second St. Louis loss and the first such game in which the reliever with the blown save did not secure at least one out.

St. Louis Cardinals, pitchers, post-season, blown saves, home

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As a reminder, games one and two are in Philadelphia on Saturday and Sunday. Games three and four (if necessary) will be played in St. Louis on Tuesday and Wednesday. If game five is needed, it will be back in Philly on Friday.

Kyle Lohse – Was scheduled to start Thursday’s game 163, if needed. Has the lowest ERA among the Cardinals starters at 3.39. Won at Philly on Monday, September 19 while pitching one of his best games of the year, defeating Roy Halladay. Questions about consistency.

Jaime Garcia – Has been more up and down in the second half and after signing a contract extension. Very good at home (2.55 ERA), but not on the road (4.63). Can be emotional on the mound, not always to his advantage. His most recent start was a four-inning stint on Monday.

Chris Carpenter – Pitched a complete game in Wednesday’s clincher, throwing 106 pitches. Pitching in Sunday’s game two would be on three days rest, but could line him up for a potential deciding game five or game one of the NLCS. Game three on Tuesday would give him five days off.

Edwin Jackson – Arguably the most consistent starter since having joined the team two months ago. Last pitched in relief on Tuesday with his most recent start on Sunday, September 25. A Saturday start would be considered five days rest.

Jake Westbrook – Struggled mightily against Houston on Monday. As the potential number five starter, will he be needed in the rotation in the NLDS? Would he be added to the pen or left off the first-round roster entirely?

In the following polls, you can vote for your preferred starters for the first four games. I am not including game five, as I think that could depend on how the first four games go. Please add your thought process in the comments below.

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In the process, Garcia lowered his 2011 ERA to 1.89. Since the beginning of last season, when he joined the Cardinals rotation, Garcia’s 2.50 ERA is fifth among all major league rotation members with at least 30 starts. Of that group of MLB hurlers during this period, only a dozen of them have sub-3.00 ERAs.

MLB pitchers, 30 or more starts since beginning of 2010, ERAs of three or lower

Among Cardinals starting pitchers with a comparable career experience level since at least 1920, Garcia has logged the lowest ERA of them all – better than Hall of Famers like Steve Carlton and Dizzy Dean.

St. Louis Cardinals pitchers, first 50 games with at least 35 starts, 1920-present

Thanks to researcher Tom Orf for pulling these lists.

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Put that together and what results is the increasing rarity of long outings or in its most extreme form, complete games. Going one step further, getting a three-game series of such performances with impressive results is almost unheard-of these days.

Yet that is what happened at Busch Stadium this past weekend.

When St. Louis Cardinals right-handed starting pitcher Kyle McClellan pitched one batter into the ninth inning during Sunday afternoon’s series finale versus Milwaukee, it concluded a weekend trifecta of Cardinals starters having gone at least eight innings each while allowing no more than one run.

Prior to the season, it would have seemed unimaginable for the 2011 Cardinals to accomplish this without either Adam Wainwright or Chris Carpenter contributing. Yet that is exactly what fans witnessed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in St. Louis.

Along with McClellan, the standout pitchers are Jaime Garcia and Kyle Lohse.

Lohse was a hard-luck loser on Saturday despite yielding just one run over eight innings. He had the misfortune to be matched up against Milwaukee’s Yovani Gallardo’s no-hit bid. The lefty Garcia was arguably the most impressive of all, spinning a two-hit complete game on Friday during which he carried a perfect game one out into the eighth inning.

Fortunately, to help put this into a historical perspective, we have researcher Tom Orf, who painstakingly combed the records for similar series since 1920.

The last time three such games were thrown by Cardinals pitchers was 39 years ago, in 1972. Further, this is just the fifth occurrence in the last 60 years.

Other than a bulge in the 1940’s, a series of three games pitched this well was only a once-or-twice in a decade occurrence – even in the pre-pitch count and pre-closer days.

Three consecutive starts of 8+ IP and 0 or 1 run allowed vs. same team (in series), St. Louis Cardinals, by decade since 1920

In fact, Bob Gibson participated in just two of these series during his long Hall of Fame career. That is the same number in which Dizzy and Paul Dean contributed. Mort Cooper was a part of five of the eight three-start performances during the wartime 1940′s.

Lohse’s Saturday gem was only the second of the 54 individual contests in which the Cardinals lost. The other was a Nelson Briles start in July 1968.

The complete list of 17 prior three-game occurrences follows.

Three consecutive starts of 8+ IP and 0 or 1 run allowed vs. same team (in series), St. Louis Cardinals, since 1920

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It marks only the third time since 1920 that a Cardinals starter has begun the season with two appearances with nine or more strikeouts each. At least one of the other names is most familiar, that of Hall of Famer Bob Gibson.

St. Louis Cardinals pitchers with nine or more strikeouts per start, first two starts of the season (1920-current)

Garcia’s start has matched only seven others this past decade across Major League Baseball and is the first such stretch in the last five years. Some very prominent names appear below.

Note that only Curt Schilling in 2002 was able to collect the strikeouts without yielding any runs. Garcia’s ERA is second-best. Pedro Martinez in 2005 and Brandon Duckworth (!) in 2002 had three such starts to open the season. Jaime’s next turn should be on Thursday to open the Cardinals series in Los Angeles.

Pitchers with nine or more strikeouts per start, first two+ starts of the season, MLB this decade (2002-2011)

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The team needed the win to avoid being swept at home and starting 0-3 for the first time since 2007. Despite the momentum of the 2006 World Championship, 2007 became a non-playoff year.

Garcia’s gem was fittingly the ninth nine-or-more strikeout game posted by a Cardinals pitcher in the first three games of the season (since 1920). Not surprisingly, Hall of Famer Bob Gibson logged five of the first eight.

St. Louis Cardinals pitchers with nine+ strikeouts in first three games of the season (since 1920)

It was the 49^th time a Cardinals pitcher threw a shutout while fanning at least nine and allowing four hits or less at any time of the season. Garcia’s teammate Chris Carpenter had the last four, three during his 2005 Cy Young Award season. Carp is second all-time to Gibson’s 12.

St. Louis Cardinals pitchers, shutout, nine+ strikeouts, allowing four hits or less (since 1920)

Thanks to researcher Tom Orf for the data tables.

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With the departure of veteran starting pitcher Joel Pineiro last winter, the St. Louis Cardinals were left with an opening in their 2010 rotation. Young left-hander Jaime Garcia seemed a legitimate contender – on paper at least.

Pitching coach Dave Duncan and manager Tony La Russa dampened expectations, making it clear on multiple occasions over the winter that Garcia would be better served to return to Triple-A Memphis for 2010. With the then-23-year-old coming off August 2008 Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery, the Cardinals braintrust wanted to protect their youngster through fewer and potentially less stressful Triple-A innings.

Garcia had returned late in the 2009 season to make nine very effective minor league appearances. Knowing his potential since he was drafted in 2005, we had named him our top prospect in the Cardinals system coming into the season.

In mid-February, Garcia reported to the major league spring training camp in Jupiter, Florida on a mission. He blew those Memphis plans out of the water by pitching so well (3.00 ERA, 20:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 24 innings) and with such poise that La Russa and Duncan had no choice. The native of Reynoso, Mexico would be their fifth starter.

As the regular season got underway, Garcia continued to exceed expectations. Not only did he lock down that rotation spot, he essentially became the team’s third starter alongside Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter.

Through the first two months of the season, Garcia made ten starts, posting an eye-catching 1.32 ERA. Providing a good reminder of the team’s struggles as a whole this past season, Garcia was pinned with two losses and three no-decisions in those outings.

During the middle third of the year, Garcia’s ERA crept up slightly, but he made just one start in which he was charged with more than three runs. At the end of July, his ERA was a run higher, but still spectacular at 2.33.

Following a couple of uncharacteristic four-run outings to begin August, Garcia pitched his best game of the season on August 22. He tossed a three-hit complete game shutout against the soon-to-be World Champion San Francisco Giants. Garcia fanned six and issued no walks.

On September 18, as a precautionary measure, La Russa announced that Garcia would be shut down for the remainder of the season. No one apparently told the pitcher the news as he reacted with surprise. After meetings with the skipper and general manager John Mozeliak, the club backed off the decision temporarily.

Without Garcia pitching in game action again, they made it official one week later.

The 24-year-old last took the mound on September 13, finishing with a stellar 13-8 record, 2.70 ERA and a 132:64 strikeout to walk ratio over 163 1/3 innings and 28 starts.

Those 13 wins, the most by a first-year National League pitcher, propelled him into being a legitimate Rookie of the Year contender, but his relatively slow finish ultimately damaged his candidacy. Garcia still came in a very respectable third in the voting.

Following the season, Garcia was selected to the 11-man 2010 Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team and was named the Cardinals’ team Rookie of the Year as well.

While the Cardinals did not reach the playoffs with Garcia, it is difficult seeing how they could have won as many as 86 games without his rookie-year emergence. The only left-hander in the rotation seems poised to remain there for at least the next five seasons.

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Where we last left this discussion, there seemed no correlation between a top season by three St. Louis Cardinals offensive leaders and the club making the playoffs. My natural curiosity led me from hitting to pitching, which is the subject of this article.

For each season of the last decade, the Albert Pujols years, I selected the Cardinals’ top three starting pitchers based on ERA+, a good summary cross-season measurement. Despite the five-man rotation, I chose three because that is the same sample size previously used for the hitters. That selection will become even more clear later in this article.

For visual clarity, I left pitchers in the same column from year to year.

* partial season
# career averages

The first thing that jumped out at me was the passing of the torch of staff ace from Matt Morris at the end of the prior decade to Woody Williams to Chris Carpenter to Adam Wainwright, with a few gap seasons in the middle.

Another thing that caught my eye was the ever-changing names in the third column. In this case, the third is not based on salary or rotation order, but in terms of results – being one of the top three in the rotation as measured by ERA+.

It is amazing to me that while two of the top three often remained constant from year to year, the identity of the third top pitcher changed ten times in ten years!

Looking ahead to 2011, I could have assumed Jaime Garcia’s second season will be superior to Jake Westbrook’s, but I didn’t. With just one full season under Garcia’s belt, that seemed presumptuous when Westbrook already has a consistent body of work. (For completeness, Kyle Lohse’s career ERA+ is 93.)

As in the earlier analysis, I assumed career ERA+ marks for Westbrook, Carpenter and Wainwright next season.

Summing the top three pitchers’ annual ERA+ marks and ranking the seasons from high to low provides this:

* partial season
# career averages

Four of the top five seasons were playoff years, with 2010 the lone exception. 2011 slots in at number eight of 11, but if Garcia’s career ERA+ of 133 was used instead of Westbrook’s 101, the additional 32 points would vault the 2011 projection up to number five.

Not wanting to prolong this process, I did take it one final step to try to tie up the loose ends. I am going to list it here rather than running yet another similarly-themed piece tomorrow.

In perhaps some bad chemistry, I added the OPS+ of the top three hitters each year to the ERA+ of the top three starting pitchers and re-ranked the Pujols years.

# career averages

While the top years changed slightly, the end result was similar to the pitchers’ in that four of the top five scoring seasons ended with a playoff berth. Whether there is real correlation here, coincidence or something in between, I don’t know.

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Whether or not a major leaguer is eligible for arbitration is a big deal in terms of compensation as that is the first time a young player can argue in favor of receiving market value instead of a near-minimum salary.

For most, the point of qualification is very clear. Three years of major league service is that tipping point. However, as part of the collective bargaining between the players and ownership, a special arbitration sub-group was added, called Super Twos.

This group consists of the top 17 percent of players with between two and three years of service, where “top” is defined as those having the most service time. This cutoff line varies by year depending on the players in the population, but is often around two years, 130 days. Essentially, being a Super Two means a player can be arbitration-eligible for four years prior to free agency instead of the normal three.

Hence the case of Jaime Garcia.

Coming into this season, Garcia’s service time was listed in the St. Louis Cardinals media guide as 1.147, or one year, 147 days. This information was picked up by a number of online data sources.

The problem is that it wasn’t accurate. Based on the rookie left-hander’s history, the numbers just didn’t add up, with the reported number seemingly too high. After all, just one year prior, Garcia’s service time was 0.081. It seemed impossible for anyone to accrue well over one year of service in just 12 months.

This came to light for me after a discussion with a member of The Cardinal Nation message board community, CariocaCardinal I think, back in March. At that point, I checked with the Cardinals organization and confirmed the 1.147 was in error. It should have read 1.047.

After a full season with the Cardinals in 2010, Garcia’s current service is now 2.047, well below the point where the Super Two line will be drawn. In other words, the Cards can pretty much renew Garcia’s 2011 salary at an above-minimum rate of their choosing.

Unfortunately, that word didn’t completely get out.

Especially this time of year, a segment of the fan base really gets into the bowels of the payroll, both committed and projected. In that light, I was asked about Garcia most recently because of a Thursday article at MLB.com in which he is listed as arbitration-eligible along with teammates Brendan Ryan and Kyle McClellan. The latter two are not under question, each having three or more years of service.

It also came up during a Joe Strauss chat at the Post-Dispatch on Wednesday. He had the incorrect date as well and answered a reader question accordingly. When asked about it later on Twitter, Strauss initially stuck to the number, but after I weighed in, he checked his sources and verified the mistake.

I bring this up not to criticize the Cardinals, Strauss or Matthew Leach, the MLB writer, in any way. Both writers used the best information available to them to draw their conclusion, yet both documents remain up on their respective websites with the incorrect conclusion drawn. The wrong service time for Garcia is also still listed on several prominent internet reference sites.

As such, the purpose of this post is simply to help clarify the situation. Garcia will not yet be eligible for arbitration, likely having saved the Cardinals several million dollars in 2011 as a result.

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When the St. Louis Cardinals lost to the Chicago Cubs by a 5-1 score on Monday night, rookie left-hander Jaime Garcia took the loss, his eighth of the season against 13 wins. Four Cubs crossed the plate during Garcia’s seven innings, though only two runs were earned due to a Skip Schumaker error.

It continued a pattern of unearned runs during Garcia’s starts that has been in place for much of the season. The two unearned runs on Monday were the 14^th and 15^th during Jaime’s mound time in 2010.

Garcia’s 15 unearned runs is 23.44 percent of his total runs yielded of 64. That percentage is the highest for any Cardinals pitcher during the Tony La Russa era, which began in 1996. In fact, the last time a higher percentage of unearned runs scored was against Joe Magrane in 1988 at 29.82 percent.

In terms of raw numbers of unearned runs coming against a Cardinals pitcher, Bob Forsch holds the dubious honor of the most in a season for at least the last 50 years with 27 in 1976.

Thanks to researcher Tom Orf for the above tables.

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By all accounts, Sunday was a big day for St. Louis Cardinals left-hander Jaime Garcia. The rookie tossed his first complete-game shutout as a major leaguer while giving his slumping teammates a much-needed lift.

Prior to Sunday, Garcia had never pitched more than seven innings in the majors, but held the playoff-contending visitors from San Francisco to just three hits and no walks over a full nine innings.

Due to a pair of double plays, Garcia faced just 28 batters, one over the minimum and did it on an economical 89 pitches, of which 65 were strikes. His pitch count was the lowest in a complete game by a Cardinals pitcher since Bob Tewksbury’s 86-pitch outing on May 30, 1992.

Garcia became the first left-handed rookie to pitch a shutout for the Cardinals since Bud Smith’s no-hitter in 2001. Smith’s game is also the most recent no-hitter thrown by any Cardinal. With his 12^th career win on Sunday, Garcia has already surpassed Smith’s total of just seven big-league victories.

Researcher Tom Orf determined that Garcia’s Sunday gem is the 240^th Cardinals complete-game shutout of three hits or less since 1920. It is the club’s third this season, as Adam Wainwright owns the other two. Interestingly, despite all his past success, Chris Carpenter has logged only four such games in his distinguished Cardinals career.

From a historical perspective, not surprisingly Bob Gibson leads the way with 18 of these games. I was a bit surprised though that he logged just two of them in his 1968 signature season. Gibson’s best season in this category was four games in 1965.

Tied for third with Bob Forsch at ten career shutouts with three or fewer hits is another familiar name, Ernie Broglio. When people cite the Lou Brock trade as having been incredibly one-sided, they often overlook the fact that Broglio had been a very good pitcher up to that point. As such, the deal was unpopular when announced. Historians continue to wonder if Ernie was damaged goods by the time of the trade, however, as he was unable to continue his past success after joining the Cubs.

Cardinals complete game shutouts, three or fewer hits, 1920-current, career totals

Perhaps in an indication of the increased focus on pitch counts and relief specialization, only 21 of these games have been logged in the almost 15 seasons since Tony La Russa took over as manager prior to the 1996 season.

In all fairness, even before La Russa arrived, it had been a long dry spell for the team and their starting pitchers specifically. The team had just one shutout of three of fewer hits during the entire seven-year span of 1991-1997. Here is the full list for the last two decades.

Cardinals complete game shutouts, three or fewer hits, 1991-current

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Over on The Cardinal Nation message board, one of our most astute posters, “Gagliano”, stepped into Dave Duncan’s shoes to develop a schedule for the St. Louis Cardinals starting pitchers through the end of the season.

Key assumptions that were made include deploying only the pitchers that are currently on the roster (no trades), the return of Kyle Lohse after two more rehab starts and the avoidance of using the fifth starter whenever possible by always keeping the starting four on regular rest.

I can understand the first two, but worry about the latter.

Put aside for a moment driving aces Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter, the latter with past injury issues. Even put aside the risks of placing a full workload on Lohse the rest of the way, a pitcher who has been injured much of the last two seasons.

I understand the interest in minimizing any future starts by both Jeff Suppan and Blake Hawksworth, but at what potential cost?

The Cardinals came into this season with the firm intent to start rookie Jaime Garcia in Memphis to more carefully manage his workload as he is coming off rehab from surgery. The lefty had other plans, forcing his way into the rotation and performing better than anyone had a right to expect.

Just this past week in New York, we asked manager Tony La Russa about Garcia’s workload. Tony said they discussed it this spring as an organization. On one hand, the manager said they carefully monitor all pitchers, while also acknowledging Garcia was given two extra days and the All-Star break already. Going forward, La Russa said “We will err on the side of caution.”

The manager was asked if the pennant race might have an impact on Garcia’s usage. “The race wouldn’t change what Dave Duncan and I do. The organization might look at that differently, though. I hope we don’t get there.” The latter point was a reference to falling out of contention.

This raises a related question I wanted badly to ask La Russa about in New York but knew it was too speculative to get an answer:

“If you don’t acquire another starter, would you rather continue to try to give Garcia extra days off now and then or avoid using the fifth starter whenever possible?”

Gagliano’s strawman assumes the latter. If the Cards can stay in the race, I think I prefer the former for two reasons.

1) Garcia’s injury history. He is squarely on track to reach a career high in innings pitched, 182, not including the post-season. Jaime threw 155 innings in his first pro season in 2006 but managed just 247 innings over the next three years combined. A elbow problem that led to Tommy John surgery late in the 2008 season was the primary reason.

2) Having a stronger Garcia for the playoffs. The Cardinals need an effective third starter – if they make it to October, of course, which takes us back to needing to play well enough in the interim to get there…

That is why La Russa and Duncan make all that money – to make these kinds of decisions.

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The St. Louis Cardinals’ last two series-ending games have been major disappointments. Co-ace Adam Wainwright’s uncharacteristically poor and brief four-inning start on Thursday to close the Toronto set began an unenviable streak of short starts. It is one that Chris Carpenter will be trying to end when he faces Arizona at Busch Stadium on Monday night.

Jaime Garcia also had his worst outing of the season on Sunday, going just two innings in Kansas City while yielding five earned runs.

In between the two unexpected bookends, Jeff Suppan and Blake Hawksworth went just five innings each on Friday and Saturday, respectively. That was more expected.

As such, the starting staff returns home hoping to end their unenviable run of going five innings or less in four consecutive games.

It is a stretch of rough pitching the likes of which has been seen by Cardinals fans just three times in the last three seasons – none last season, once in 2008 and twice in 2007. The worst streak was six such games, accrued in September 2007.

St. Louis Cardinals, consecutive starts of five or fewer innings, summary, 2007-current

Braden Looper was the constant in all three prior stretches.

St. Louis Cardinals, consecutive starts of five or fewer innings, detail, 2007-current

If one expands the aperture to streaks of six innings or less, one more bad run in 2008 is added and two more in 2007, a very rough season for the defending World Champions.

St. Louis Cardinals, consecutive starts of six or fewer innings, summary, 2007-current

Likely one of the reasons that the youthful Cardinals relief corps came into Sunday with the second lowest ERA in the National League at 3.09 was that they haven’t been overused. In fact, almost ¾ of NL bullpens, 11 of 16, have pitched more innings than St. Louis’ 210 this season.

Obviously, if the starters will continue to exit as early as they have over the most recent four games, the bullpen will surely suffer as well.

Then, there is the Cardnials’ inconsistent offense…

(Thanks to Tom Orf for providing the game detail.)

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With all the questions about the back end of the St. Louis Cardinals rotation, it seems worthwhile to remember just how successful the front end is.

Coming into Sunday’s action, the Cardinals are the only team in the Major Leagues with three starters with ERAs under three, minimum 12 starts. In fact, there are only 22 such pitchers in the league.  They are listed below.

On the bad side, the Cardinals three starters with ERA under 2.55, Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright and Jaime Garcia, aren’t getting enough victories. The three have just 21 wins in their 38 total starts coming into Sunday.

Only 15 starting pitchers across MLB have ERAs under 2.55. The only team besides the Cardinals with more than one is the Tampa Bay Rays with two. Ten teams have one.

Starting pitchers (22) with ERA under 3.00, MLB, 2010 through June 12

Thanks to Tom Orf for his research on the subject of this article.

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Once again, St. Louis Cardinals rookie left-hander Jaime Garcia suffered due to lack of offensive support on Wednesday night in San Diego. The 23-year-old went six scoreless innings, allowing three hits and four walks. He departed with the score 0-0 in a game eventually won by the Padres, 2-1 in 13 innings.

It was Garcia’s third no decision when not allowing a run this season. No one else in the major leagues has more than one such game.

Further, no other Cardinal since at least 1952 has been presented with such little support while pitching so well in three starts of five or more innings.

Jaime Garcia: no decisions, 2010

Several Cardinals have come close to Garcia’s run of tough luck in the past.

During last season, Chris Carpenter had three shutout no-decision starts. One was not of regulation length, just three innings.

Chris Carpenter: no decisions, 2009

In May 1980, John Fulgham may have had the worst short stretch of non support ever. He was presented with no-decisions in three consecutive shutout outings, but his first start was only four innings.

John Fulgham: no decisions, 1980

Thanks to researcher Tom Orf for providing the tables shown above.

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In the midst of the wreckage of the St. Louis Cardinals’ Wednesday night’s home loss to Florida by a 5-1 score, researcher Tom Orf pulled some factoids relating to tough-luck starter Jaime Garcia.

From the first inning on, Garcia’s pitch count was elevated due to shaky defense behind him. Yet he worked around baserunners put on after fielding misses by both Skip Schumaker and Felipe Lopez to strike out the side in the initial frame.

It tied Garcia with ace Chris Carpenter for the most such innings this season at three. One quarter of the way into the season, the 2010 club is on pace to have more “strike out the side” innings in any year since at least 2000, when Rick Ankiel led the way with a dozen on his own.

Striking out the side, Cardinals (2000-current)

Garcia stranded nine runners in five innings and was pulled after throwing 96 pitches on Wednesday. As a result, the rookie’s quality start streak ended as did his run to start the season with six or more inning performances allowing two or fewer runs at seven.

Season-opening streak of 6+IP and 2 ER allowed or less, MLB (1920-39, 1952-current)