Hammerheads' Garcia goes the distance

Jarlin Garcia pitched well enough in the first half to earn a Florida State League All-Star nod and a trip to the Futures Game. On Saturday night, he showed signs of carrying that momentum into the rest of the season.

The Marlins' No. 4 prospect tossed a seven-inning three-hitter for his first career complete game as Class A Advanced Jupiter blanked Daytona, 6-0, to earn a split of its doubleheader. He struck out five while walking one en route to his first win since June 9.

"His fastball had a lot of life. It was a plus fastball," Hammerheads pitching coach Joe Coleman said. "He threw enough quality breaking balls and changeups to get them off of the fastball. He was very aggressive and when he got ahead, he put them away pretty easy."

Garcia (3-5), signed by the Marlins as a 17-year-old out of the Dominican Republic in 2010, did not allow a runner past first base until eighth-ranked Reds prospect Phillip Ervin reached second on defensive indifference with two outs in the final frame. The 22-year-old left-hander has a history of being stingy with baserunners after posting the lowest walk rate in the South Atlantic League last season with Class A Greensboro.

"He's pitched with confidence all year," Coleman said. "He's that type of kid. At times, he's still young and he tends to overthrow and tries to do too much, and we're trying to get that taken care of, but he pretty much goes out there and he's in a pretty good zone every time he goes out there."

Garcia had struggled since the All-Star break, going winless in three starts while allowing 11 runs and 24 hits over 17 innings. For Coleman, that statistic wasn't of much concern.

"He pitched earlier [this season], he had an earned run average in the two's and he didn't have a win," the Major League veteran said. "It's just one of those things where a bunch of little things happened, but he's battled every time he's gone out there. I think he's had maybe two outings that you would question a little bit, but other than that, he's battled his tail off and just fights every time he's gone out there.

"He has a tendency to pitch up sometimes, and in a couple outings it's hurt him. He was up a little bit tonight, but he had so much life on his fastball he was able to get by."

Garcia lowered his ERA to 3.10, down from a season-high 3.36. Coleman said the Hammerheads will continue to work with the 6-foot-2 lefty to help him find consistency on the mound.  

"[He'll need] consistency with the breaking ball, Coleman added. "Changeup's fine, fastball's fine, but he's going to have to be consistent with the breaking ball to keep them off of those other two pitches and to have a putaway pitch.

"We keep working on the same things all the time. He's in an experience level that he's still very young and eventually, he's going to get a feel for those things and it'll become more consistent down the road."

Garcia worked with a lead virtually from the outset as Yeifi Perez led off the bottom of the first with his first homer. Marlins No. 17 prospect Justin Bohn also went yard and singled. 

Daytona starter Seth Varner (0-2) gave up six runs on seven hits and struck out five over five innings.

Daytona took the first game of the twinbill, blanking Jupiter, 2-0.