Marlins' Garcia stifles the Yankees

He held them hitless into the fifth inning, keeping their vaunted lineup off-balance with a combination of a low-90s mph fastball and a cleverly located change-up. The difference from last week’s outing was that Garcia’s teammates staked him to a seven-run lead, including three in the first inning, and the bullpen finished the job.

With Masahiro Tanaka struggling on yet another unseasonably cold night at Yankee Stadium and the Yankees’ infield botching several routine plays, the Marlins — who had won just four of their first 16 games this season — cruised to an easy 9-1 victory, bouncing back from a 12-1 defeat on Monday and dropping the Yankees’ record back to .500.

Tanaka’s problems began on the second pitch of the game, a fastball that Derek Dietrich ripped into right field for a single. A walk by Miguel Rojas and a run-scoring single by Starlin Castro — one of the players the Yankees traded to Miami for Giancarlo Stanton in the offseason — followed, and then two batters later, after another single by designated hitter Justin Bour, Didi Gregorius threw the ball away on a routine grounder to shortstop, allowing two more runs to score.

Another error, in the second inning, led to the Marlins’ fourth run, when first baseman Tyler Austin could not handle a throw from catcher Gary Sanchez on a bunt from leadoff hitter Cameron Maybin, who got to second and was driven in by a single by Dietrich.

And in the fifth, it was Miami catcher J.T. Realmuto who sent a Tanaka fastball sailing over the right-center fence with two men on, extending the lead to 7-0.

Garcia was by no means perfect, allowing five walks over the first three innings. But the only thing resembling a hit from a Yankees batter was Sanchez’s hard grounder down the third baseline that was fielded neatly by Brian Anderson to end the first inning. Sanchez also drove Maybin, the center fielder, to the wall on a flyout leading off the fourth inning.

Garcia, who led the Marlins with 68 appearances out of the bullpen in 2017, has a 0.86 ERA in 21 innings this season.

Yankees third baseman Miguel Andujar broke up the no-hitter with a double to the base of the left-field wall with one out in the fifth. But after advancing to third on a passed ball he was stranded when Brett Gardner struck out and Aaron Judge flied out.

Stanton, who has become the target of nearly constant jeering from the Yankee Stadium crowd, hit into a double play in the first, popped out in the third, and struck out in the sixth and eighth innings, running his season strikeout total to 29 and drawing loud boos from the crowd.

After Stanton’s strikeout in the sixth, the Yankees mounted their only real threat of the game — loading the bases on two walks wrapped around a Sanchez single off reliever Tayron Guerrero. But Neil Walker and Austin struck out to end the threat.

Andujar prevented a shutout, blasting a pitch from Brad Ziegler for his first career home run with two out in the bottom of the ninth.

It was the second straight poor outing for Tanaka, who had allowed six runs in five innings to the Boston Red Sox on the same night Garcia was baffling the Mets, in a game the Yankees eventually won 10-7. After allowing seven runs, six of them earned, in five innings on Tuesday, Tanaka left with an ERA of 6.45 from four starts, outdueled on this night by the Marlins’ young pitcher.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.