Garcia Doesn’t Take Long to Defeat Cubs

Freddy Garcia is doing more with less.

Garcia won his fourth consecutive start and Desi Relaford drove in three runs as the Seattle Mariners defeated the Chicago Cubs, 4-2, Saturday.

Garcia (8-4), who hasn’t lost since May 19, shut out the Cubs until Todd Hundley homered with one out in the seventh.

“At the beginning of the year, he was running into too many deep counts,” catcher Ben Davis said. “He’s got too good a stuff to go that deep. He’s got the stuff to go out there and put guys away.”

Garcia improved to 6-3 in interleague play. He gave up five hits in seven innings and lowered his earned-run average to 3.20. He led the American League in ERA at 3.05 last season, when he was the winning pitcher in the All-Star game in Seattle.

On Saturday, he threw 104 pitches, 64 for strikes.

“I throw a lot of strikes,” Garcia said. “That’s the key to be successful. If you throw a lot of strikes and make a good pitch every time you go out there, you got a good chance to win a lot of games.”

Manager Lou Piniella agreed, saying: “He’s gotten on a roll and we’ve needed it, believe me. It couldn’t have come at a better time for us. He’s really picked it up. He’s throwing strikes and getting ahead of the hitters.”

In the sixth, the Cubs had the bases loaded with two out. Mariner pitching coach Bryan Price came out to talk to Garcia, who then got Fred McGriff to ground out to end the inning.

The Mariners, who lost, 2-0, to rookie Mark Prior Friday night, took a 3-0 lead against Matt Clement (4-4) in the second inning.

After John Olerud singled and Ruben Sierra walked, Relaford tripled to center field. Davis added a sacrifice fly. The Mariners made it 4-0 in the fourth when Olerud walked, Sierra doubled and Relaford hit a sacrifice fly.