WHY GARCIA COULD BE RUNNING OUT OF GAS

(Photo:Getty)
You gotta admit, this season Freddy Garcia has been much, much better than everyone expected. Heck, I even had him off the team by the middle of the year, read my Garcia prediction from early April in YANKEES PROJECTIONS 2011: THE STARTING PITCHING.

I was way off my prediction, but you know what, I'm glad I was wrong. He's been one of the most consistent starters for the Yankees all season by going 11-8 with a 3.77 ERA. He's been a rock, but he could be starting running out of gas.
(Photo: Getty)
After his sub-par outing against the Toronto Blue Jays, he's now 0-1 in his last three starts with a 10.94 ERA in that span. He's allowed seven homers in his last four starts, while allowing six in his last three. This may raise a bit of a red flag because Garcia allowed just 10 homers in his first 22 games. He even had a 10 start stretch from June 12th to August 7th in which he didn't allow a single homer, which is pretty incredible for a guy who has allowed 63.9% of the balls put in play against him to be hit in the air. You can say he's been a bit lucky considering he's pitched nearly half of his games in homer friendly Yankee Stadium, which has allowed the second most homers per game at 2.62 per contest this season. Click HERE.(Photo: Getty)
Now, I'm not saying that he should get removed from the starting rotation. I'm just saying he may be running out of gas a bit. He's logged 140.2 innings this season after compiling 157 last year with the Chicago White Sox, so he may or may not be starting to hit a wall. I sure hope not. The Yankees need him to continue what has been a very good season to keep going through the playoffs. His next scheduled start will be a big test. He'll be facing the Boston Red Sox for the fifth time this season. This year he's 0-2 in four games, three starts, with a 6.92 ERA. He's had one good start, one iffy start, and one terrible start. His good start came in Fenway on August 7th in which he went five innings and allowed one run. His iffy start came on May 15th at Yankee Stadium when he allowed four runs in 5.1 innings, while his terrible start was on June 7th at the Stadium when he recorded just five outs and allowed four runs. Hopefully he can prove me wrong, but he'll certainly have to be up to the task.



--Jesse Schindler, BYB Staff Writer




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