Garcia Sick in Game 2

Jaime Garcia was removed from the game in the 3rd inning with a stomach virus.

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) October 10, 2015

By the time that news was shared many Cardinals fans were also dealing with stomach pains as their team trailed after the Cubs scored five times in the 2nd inning en route to a 6-3 victory to even the NLDS at one win per side.

“I found out about an hour before the game,” said Matheny. “He said he was doing okay. He just had a couple of rough nights’ sleep, so we are going to keep a close eye on him. But he wanted to pitch, and he felt good going out there, and you know, really it was fielding that did this. Those five runs were unearned runs, I do believe, but, then we got to the point, too, where it was probably on a baseball decision gonna get him out anyhow, but the medical team also thought it was probably a good idea.”

“Something I’ve been dealing with for the last couple of days–stomach,” said Garcia. “The body was just almost nothing unfortunately, but at the same time no excuse. I notified the team right before the game, just what was going on but I was going to pitch–it was my game. I worked so hard all year long for this situation. Unfortunately, it didn’t go my way. But no excuse on that.”

Garcia pitched around a double in the 1st inning and allowed a single to open the 2nd. An error by Kolten Wong prevented the completion of a double play. After walking a batter, Garcia made his own error on a sacrifice bunt–first in hesitating to throw home and then with an errant throw to first.

“Yeah, it was a mistake,” said Garcia. “Mental mistake. It should’ve never happened.”

Another sacrifice bunt led to the second run of the inning before Garcia gave up another single and then a 2-run homer to Jorge Soler before getting out of the inning. Five runs crossed the plate, none of them were earned.

“To me, they’re all earned,” stated Garcia. “To me, it should’ve never happened. It started with that bunt. Something behind you happens, you’ve got to be able to block it out and still make pitches. I’ve been really good at that the whole year, I didn’t do it today. You know what, we’ve got to go out there and win a ballgame on Monday and try to win on Tuesday. It’s totally my bad today. It’s on me and no excuse and just got to do a better job than that.”

“We wanted to see what he looked like,” said Matheny. “When he went out there, he was in the strike zone, making pitches and getting ground balls, and mostly what we had seen every start he’s been out.

“Like I said, it was more fielding issues that cost him in the long run than anything else. But, yeah, instantly as he came in and told me this, like I said, it was right before we were getting ready to go out, and so we had some plans in place and gave him the option, hey, you good enough to go? And he said, yeah, I’m fine to pitch, but I just want to let you know I’ve been a little off lately, so we’re trying to keep a close eye.

“And then things happened pretty quick, and then the 2-run homer was the cap on it. But there really wasn’t anything that we were seeing up until that point pitching-wise that looked that much out of character.”

Lance Lynn, who was scheduled to start Game 4, was held back from what would’ve been a pregame side session and relieved Garcia in the 3rd inning.

“No, I think right now we have options,” answered Matheny on if Lynn remains in that spot. “We haven’t used Tyler, haven’t shown him, and Lance is certainly the guy that we have kind of penciled for that so far, so — and anything he did today didn’t hurt his chances of doing that as far as health-wise.”

photo credit:  Bill Greenblatt/UPI