By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
The numbers already say Luis García is about ready to say goodbye to Triple-A.
In 17 games for the Rochester Red Wings, the 21-year-old infielder is hitting .360 with nine extra-base hits and four home runs. His 27 hits lead all of minor league baseball.
On Tuesday night, he belted a pair of two-run homers, the second of which broke an 8-8 tie in the bottom of the eighth to power the Red Wings to an improbable 10-9 comeback victory over the Syracuse Mets.
“He is about as locked in as you can be,” Wings manager Matthew LeCroy said. “When he gets his pitch, you see what happens.”
Down 8-1 after three innings, the Wings were able to tread water thanks to four scoreless relief innings from Sterling Sharp, then chipped away at the deficit with two runs in the fifth, four in the seventh and three in the eighth.
“It’s a testament to character,” LeCroy said.
And talent. Starting with García. An international free-agent signee of the Washington Nationals in 2016 at age 16, García is knocking on the door of a promotion to Major League Baseball.
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Actually, he’s trying to bang the door down. And when he does go to the Nationals, he won’t be a utility player plugged into the lineup every fourth game.
“He’s a unique talent,” LeCroy said. “He’s got a chance to be a star and an All-Star. Obviously if he keeps this up, people in Rochester probably won’t see him much longer.”
García gave the Wings a spark of hope in the fifth when he drilled a Jake Reed pitch into the Rochester bullpen, cutting the Syracuse lead to 8-3.
The Wings put up four in the seventh, three of which scored on Donovan Casey’s home run to center, then Tres Barrera hit a one-out solo homer in the eighth to tie the score before Garcia boomed a Eric Orze pitch into the protective screen in front of the right-field videoboard.
The quick hands can make Garcia lethal at the plate.
“He always kind of reminded me of (Hall of Famer) Roberto Alomar,” LeCroy said. “Roberto Alomar used his hands better than anybody and Luis has those type of hands, they’re lightning quick. He’s got the ability to wait and attack the ball late.”
But it takes more than just quick hands to hit for average and power.
“His hand speed is remarkable, but what’s happening to Luis is he’s starting to understand the strike zone,” LeCroy said. “He can hit any pitch. Early in his career he would hit a ball that was two balls off the zone that was in or out. Now he’s starting to really lock in on his area that he does the damage and lay off some of the soft stuff that got him in bad counts early in his career.”
Reyes played 83 games for Washington in the COVID-19 impacted season of 2020, hitting .276 with 2 homers, a slugging percentage of .366 and an OPS of .668. Last year, he hit. 303 with 13 homers and a .970 OPS in 37 games with the Wings and hit .242 with 6 homers and a .686 OPS for the Nats.
García said during that time in Washington, he worked on mechanical issues with his swing but also became a better player by seeing how big-league stars like Juan Soto put in the work every day.
That’s something the Wings’ other Luis – starting pitcher Luis Reyes – needs to do now. He again struggled to find the strike zone with his fastball and lasted just three innings, allowing six hits, five walks and eight earned runs.
That abbreviated outing – and squiggly number of earned runs — pushed his already bloated ERA to 15.32.
“He’s working hard with (Rafael) Chaves, our pitching coach, and they’re going to keep doing the work and look at the film to figure out what’s the difference between last year and this year,” LeCroy said. “His fastball command is just off now and we have to get it back. He’s got to be better if he wants to compete at this level and the next level.”
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