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Rays' Garza A 1-Hit Wonder

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 27, 2008

MIAMI - Matt Garza wasn't terribly enthused to draw the 12:10 p.m. start Thursday under the South Florida sun. A couple of days earlier, he said his focus was on "trying to survive" the heat and humidity he knew was in store.

Once it came time to take the mound, though, Garza was as cool as the Rays have seen him. Beginning with a groundout by Hanley Ramirez to open the bottom of the first inning, Garza methodically disposed of one Marlins hitter after another. By mid-afternoon, when Garza got Ramirez to ground to short once again for the 27th and final out in a 6-1 Rays victory, he had faced only 28 Florida batters.

Ramirez was the only player to record a hit, amazing Garza by yanking a slider that tailed well out of the strike zone into the seats in left-center on the first pitch of the seventh inning. The only other Marlin to reach base was Jeremy Hermida, who walked with one out in the second, but he didn't get a chance to linger. Garza got Jorge Cantu to ground into a double play and kept on churning.

"That was really impressive," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "His stuff, from the very first inning, it looked that good. It was not like he had to build on anything or get better or sharper; he had a great tempo all day long, was pounding the strike zone, was able to throw his breaking ball for a strike even in fastball counts. That was just a really well-composed, dominant performance."

It was the third complete-game one-hitter in Rays history and the best outing of Garza's career. At age 24, he should have plenty of time to try to top his first career start that lasted longer than eight innings.

When dissecting what allowed Garza to hold such sway over a Marlins offense that leads the majors in home runs, his stuff is only a tangential factor. The repertoire has always been there for Garza, who fanned pinch-hitter Wes Helms on a 95 mph fastball for the second-to-last out of the game and hardly allowed any solid contact throughout the afternoon.

The line between success and failure for Garza is defined by how he handles himself on the mound. Open displays of frustration on the mound, which often caused him to lose his focus on the next hitter and knocked him out of whack mechanically, were a problem for Garza in Minnesota and resurfaced earlier this year.

Since his very public confrontation with catcher Dioner Navarro during his June 8 start at Texas, though, Garza has been on a mission to keep his emotions under control. He has consulted with sports psychologist Ken Ravizza both in person and on the phone for help in channeling his energy in a more positive fashion and has seen immediate results.

"I've made huge strides mentally," said Garza. "I think before I would have lost it after giving up that slider to Hanley. I would have gotten ticked off, threw a couple angry pitches, a couple more knocks might have came and we'd be talking about a different story here. I might have been out in the bottom of the seventh. But I was able to regroup."

Garza's primary focus has been on taking the game pitch-by-pitch and not letting an errant pitch or bad call by an umpire get him out of his game. As soon as a pitch leaves his hand, he said, the idea is to forget about it and the result, and move on to the next delivery.

The pitch Ramirez drove out Thursday was a prime example. Garza didn't do anything wrong, but in the past, that might not have stopped him from beating himself up. This time, he gave Ramirez his due and plowed ahead, retiring the final nine men he faced to finish it off.

And it isn't just a mental thing; keeping his emotions in check has allowed Garza to repeat his delivery more consistently and be aware when something might be wrong.

"If I don't get upset, I'm able to control my body more," he said. "If I get upset, I've got too many things running through my head and I won't be able to feel what's off or what's on. I was able to make one-pitch adjustments."

The Rays know Garza's improved approach won't produce results like this every time out, but it should help him attain a level of consistency that has been missing in the past.

Thursday, he was able to turn what might have been a good start into a great one. The key is turning potentially ugly outings into successful ones by holding on and waiting for the offense to bail him out.

The hitters, led by Evan Longoria (three extra-base hits) and Shawn Riggans (three RBIs), had him covered Thursday, and it would be difficult to ask much more of a pitcher.

"It's hard to say that he can be better than what we saw today," Maddon said.

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227 or mlancaster@tampatrib.com.

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