Jaime Garcia One of Few Bright Spots for Struggling Cardinals

ST. LOUIS – Jaime Garcia must be the front-runner in a crowded field for NL Rookie of the Year, but it's understandable if his name isn't the first that comes to mind.

Garcia, it seems, stopped being a rookie a while ago.

The Cardinals handed Garcia the ball in the first game of their must-win series against the first-place Reds on Friday, and he delivered, just as he has all season. Garcia gave up two runs and got into the seventh inning of the Cardinals' 3-2 victory. His earned-run average actually went up to 2.35, and he improved his record to 13-6.

"Off the top of my head, more than half of them have been clutch, important games," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said, trying to run through his rookie's 13 victories in his mind. "He's been really consistent. He's pitched very well. He kept his composure. He's had an outstanding season."

Garcia, a 24-year-old lefty, seems to have already mastered one of the key skills of life in the big leagues: to relax in the face of pressure. As he prepared for Friday's game, facing the hottest team in the league, with his teammates and a sellout crowd of 43,540 desperately looking to him for a life line, Garcia knew to turn the intensity down, not up.

"Before the game I was thinking, Don't try to do too much,'" Garcia said. "Obviously there is pressure with the fans and everything, but just calm down and do what I've been doing the last couple games. Don't get too excited. I was able to do that pretty good."

Garcia made a couple mistakes, one that Paul Janish hit over the left-field fence and another that Jonny Gomes hit into the left-center field gap, but mostly he went about his business with workmanlike, methodical efficiency.

Even when Brandon Phillips stepped to the plate, drawing vociferous boos from the normally good-natured Cardinals fans, Garcia said he told himself not to get carried away by trying to strike him out.

"I had to worry about the other eight hitters, too," he said.

Outs were all that mattered. One at a time.

After the Reds pulled within 3-2 in the fourth, he retired nine of the last 12 hitters he faced. He left after 98 pitches, making way for relievers Mitchell Boggs, Kyle McClellan and Ryan Franklin to secure the victory.

"It's just what we're used to seeing," McClellan said. "We've been seeing it since spring training, watching the way he's grown. In the bullpen, we look at him as a guy who is going to go out and get us deep in the game and give us a chance to win."

Garcia ran into a bit of a hiccup a few weeks ago, which might have been an ominous sign that either he was getting fatigued -- he pitched only 37 innings last year, his first after Tommy John surgery -- or that the league had figured him out.

However, Garcia (pictured right, being commended on his performance by catcher Yadier Molina shortly before he left Friday's game) now has an 0.67 ERA over his past four starts, including three wins in a row. If a clutch performance down the stretch counts for anything among the writers will pick among the Rookie of the Year frontrunners -- Garcia, Buster Posey and Jason Heyward -- then Garcia should be winning big points.

"I feel like I'm learning every time," he said.

He said he still feels good physically, despite the heavy innings workload. The Cardinals gave him two extra days before this start, not only to give him a rest, but also to position him to pitch against the Reds. There are no more off days, though, so the Cardinals will put the pedal to the metal with Garcia, sending him out every fifth day the rest of the way, unless they see signs that he needs a break. (They have Jeff Suppan to insert into the rotation if they want to give Garcia a break.)

The Cardinals are going to push Garcia to the limit because, for now, they remain on the outskirts of the pennant race. Thanks to a miserable three weeks following the sweep at Cincinnati last month, the Cardinals came into this rematch series trailing the Reds by eight games. They trailed the Phillies by 5 1/2 in the wild card race.

Friday night's victory pulled them within seven of the Reds, with Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter set to go the final two games this weekend.

Their hopes may be slim, but they are hopes nonetheless.

Garcia's attitude -- don't try to do too much -- is shared throughout the clubhouse. Baby steps, that's the key phrase around the St. Louis clubhouse.

"This has got to be the start of something," McClellan said. "If not, we're running out of time. We put ourselves in a pretty deep hole, but we're going to keep fighting to get out of it."