• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Cardinals turn to Garcia against Blue Jays

Jun 25, 2011 - 2:54 PM (Sports Network) - Wins have not come easily for Jaime Garcia, but the southpaw will try to grab one this evening when he takes the hill for the St. Louis Cardinals against the Toronto Blue Jays in the second matchup of a three-game set at Busch Stadium.

Through his first eight starts this season Garcia racked up a 5-0 ledger with a sub 2.00 earned run average. However, since that fifth victory on May 12th, the southpaw is 1-2 in seven outings.

The last time Garcia was on the bump, he allowed three runs -- two earned -- on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings of work against Kansas City.

The majority of Garcia's success this season has come at home where the young hurler has been nearly untouchable. In six games at Busch Stadium the 24-year- old is 4-0 with an outstanding 0.81 ERA.

The Blue Jays will turn to Carlos Villanueva, who will try to bounce back from his first loss on the season. Villanueva fell victim to a lack of run support, as the right-hander allowed only two runs in seven innings in a setback to Cincinnati.

Villanueva, who has also spent time in the bullpen this season, still possesses a 4-1 ledger with a solid 3.17 earned run average. Villanueva spent most of his career with the Milwaukee Brewers, so he has plenty of experience against the Cardinals.

The 27-year-old has made 24 appearances against St. Louis and six of those were starts. Overall, Villanueva has accumulated a 3.11 ERA in those games.

Yesterday, Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista hit a go-ahead homer in the ninth inning, lifting Toronto to a 5-4 victory over St. Louis.

With one out, Fernando Salas (4-2) threw an 0-1 fastball on the outside edge of the plate and up, and Bautista put a swing on it. The ball sailed just over the right-field fence, an opposite-field shot and his major league-leading 23rd home run of the year.

Bautista said he watched video of Salas and was expecting the pitch.

"He likes his fastball, he throws it away most of the time," Bautista said. "I was looking for it. It was a ball, but I ended up hitting it good. So, I'll take it."

Frank Francisco worked a 1-2-3 bottom half to secure the victory, which ended Toronto's four-game slide.

Aaron Hill and Adam Lind drove in two runs apiece for the Blue Jays, while Jason Frasor (2-1) picked up the victory for throwing a scoreless eighth.

Matt Holliday hit a game-tying two-run blast in the sixth inning for St. Louis, which fell to 3-4 on its nine-game homestand.

Holliday's homer got Cardinals starter Jake Westbrook off the hook. The right- hander gave up four runs on 10 hits and one walk in 4 1/3 innings, including two runs in the first.

"Today I was just all over the place from the get-go," Westbrook said. "Not controlling counts, and making mistakes that put our bullpen in a bind."

St. Louis took two of three meetings from June 22-24 last year against Toronto. The Blue Jays won a three-game series up north during the 2005 campaign after St. Louis swept a three-game set in 2003 at Busch Stadium.