Garcia knocked out early; Reds pound Cardinals, 11-0

CINCINNATI The Cardinals’ starting pitching, consistently excellent through the first five months, had thrown a few shoes in the early days of September, but none by left-hander Jaime Garcia, who entered Thursday night’s game with the Cincinnati Reds with a 1.89 earned-run average and a winner of five decisions in a row.

But while Cincinnati left-handed rookie John Lamb, acquired from Kansas City in the Johnny Cueto trade, was able to pitch around all of his six walks in five innings, Garcia was not able to shed himself of the uncharacteristic four that he allowed. Garcia was knocked out after 4 1/3 innings as the last-place Reds stormed to a 6-0 lead, which later ballooned to an 11-0 victory, at sparsely populated Great American Ball Park.

Only 16,363 fans observed the best team and the worst team in the National League Central Division who apparently switched uniforms before the game. It was the Cardinals’ worst drubbing of the season, highlighted only by a ninth-inning pinch single by first baseman Matt Adams, making his first appearance since May 26 when he suffered a right quadriceps strain, which required surgery.

Two of Garcia’s walks scored and another led to a third run as he suffered his earliest dismissal of the season.

He trailed only 2-0 entering the fifth but speedy Billy Hamilton legged out an infield hit and Jason Bourgeois walked for the second time.

Joey Votto sliced an opposite-field drive to left where Stephen Piscotty gave chase but couldn’t flag down the ball, which clanged off the wall as he made a jumping attempt.

Hamilton scored and then Bourgeois did, too, on Brandon Phillips’ sacrifice fly.

Todd Frazier doubled to score Votto, ending Garcia’s night and Frazier came home on Randy Choate’s wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Eugenio Suarez.

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