Jarlin Garcia took the mound on Wednesday for the first start of his young career and remarkably held the New York Mets hitless through six innings. However, Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly opted to pull the left-hander to begin the seventh inning.
Garcia had thrown 77 pitches through the six innings of work, allowing two walks while striking out three.
Adding insult to injury, the Marlins' bullpen promptly gave up the 1-0 lead their starter had carried since the beginning of the second inning. In fact, the Mets put up four runs in the eighth inning against three different relievers to take a 4-1 lead.
The 25-year-old had served as a reliever up until Wednesday's game, posting a 4.26 ERA over 63 1/3 innings through the 2017-18 campaign.
Mattingly and the Marlins have previously removed starting pitchers from no-hit bids. Dan Straily was removed after 5 1/3 innings of no-hit baseball in April last season. Brad Ziegler wound up losing the combined effort in the eighth inning. Meanwhile, Wei-Yin Chen also carried a no-hitter through seven frames, also in April of last year. Kyle Barraclough surrendered a hit in the ninth to spoil that one.
Despite flirting with a no-hitter on a relatively low pitch count, two of Garcia's three strikeouts came against opposing pitcher Zack Wheeler.
