Jaime Garcia returns, St. Louis Cardinals fall 6-5

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Jaime Garcia returned to the pitching mound for his first game of Spring Training as the St. Louis Cardinals fell to the Washington Nationals in a 6-5 loss.

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It was a short outing for the pitcher. Garcia pitched 1.1 innings, allowing one run on three hits. He struck out one and walked one.

The bulk of the damage came from the St. Louis Bullpen in the bottom of the 6th inning. With a 4-1 lead, relief pitcher Carlos Villanueva allowed four runs on six hits, walking one and striking out two. The former Chicago Cubs pitcher would be relieved by John Gast. Gast allowed one run on two hits, striking out two batters.

The Cardinals offense had nine hits on the afternoon. The Cardinals got on the board first with two runs in the second inning, resulting from RBI singles from Xavier Scruggs and Rafael Ortega.

Right fielder Randal Grichuk hit a solo home run in the third inning off of Nationals pitcher A.J. Cole. Cole came in to relieve Stephen Strasburg on the mound.

In the fourth inning, catcher Tony Cruz scored on Pete Kozma‘s sacrifice fly.

Despite the loss, no story was bigger today than Garcia’s return for the first time since pitching against the Philadelphia Phillies last June.

“Every time you take the mound, no matter what, Spring Training game or regular-season game, there is always excitement and there is always that adrenaline going,” Garcia said according to MLB.com‘s Jenifer Langosch. “And after going through that thing that I went through, it was a big deal. There’s always excitement, but at the same time, I felt good. I was able to control my emotions, get the first one out of the way. Now I’ve got to get ready for the next one.”

Lance Lynn will take the start on Sunday against the Miami Marlins. Tim Cooney is expected to pitch in relief.

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