The St. Louis Cardinals hope to get SP Jaime Garcia back from him 60-day DL stint soon, and he made the first important step to that end, performing well in his opening minor league rehab game:

On rehab assignment, Garcia goes 2 1/3 scoreless in rehab start. Allows four hits, gets four groundouts, Ks one. #STLCards #Cardinals

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) July 30, 2012

Garcia, 25, an extreme ground ball pitcher, is at his best in games where he is inducing ground balls and limiting walks. In the 2012 season, he has a 4.48 ERA and a strong 2.78 FIP through 66 and 1/3 innings.

He proved to be a key cog in the Cardinals 2011 rotation, pitching 194 and 2/3 innings with a 3.56 ERA and 3.23 FIP.

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