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CLEVELAND -- Jaime Garcia, a baseball vagabond this year, will pitch for a third team in third consecutive starts Friday night when he makes his New York Yankees debut at Progressive Field against the Cleveland Indians.
Garcia began the season with the Atlanta Braves, got traded to the Minnesota Twins on July 24, then got traded again to the Yankees on Sunday. Garcia was with the Twins so briefly that he never even made it to Minnesota.
The Twins were in Los Angeles, playing the Dodgers, when they acquired Garcia from Atlanta. Minnesota then moved on to Oakland, where he started and beat the A's on July 28, and before the weekend ended, the Twins traded Garcia to the Yankees.
The changes of uniform haven't affected Garcia's pitching yet. In his past three starts, two for Atlanta and one for Minnesota, Garcia is 3-0 with a 3.05 ERA. He beat the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Dodgers in his final two games with the Braves.
"I really don't pay attention to anything that's out of my control or anything that's going on," Garcia said. "I just focus on getting ready for each start and making pitches when it's my time to take the mound. That's what I'm going to do whether it's here or somewhere else, and now that I'm here, I'm extremely excited and continue to have the same mentality every time I take the mound."
In 19 starts overall this season, Garcia is 5-7 with a 4.29 ERA. Friday will be his first career appearance against Cleveland.
Trevor Bauer will start for the Indians. Bauer, who is 1-4 with a 5.34 ERA in six career starts against the Yankees, is 9-8 with a 5.25 ERA in 20 starts this season.
He was due to start Wednesday at Boston, but the game was rained out, and his start was pushed back to Friday to let Corey Kluber pitch the opener against the Yankees. The strategy proved sound when Kluber threw a complete game in a 5-1 win Thursday.
Bauer is coming off his best start of the season, a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on July 27. He threw 116 pitches in eight innings, allowing one run on seven hits with six strikeouts and one walk.
The Indians need good work from the starters because they are operating at less than full strength in their bullpen. Andrew Miller was placed on the disabled list on Wednesday due to patellar tendon tendinitis in his right knee. That leaves the team with rookie Tyler Olson as the only left-handed reliever.
"We may have to piece it together a little more out there (with Miller on the DL), but the early returns on Olson have been really good," Indians manager Terry Francona said.
In four relief appearances with the Indians, Olson has pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and no walks while striking out four.
In 34 relief appearances at Triple-A Columbus, Olson had a 3.21 ERA with 11.6 strikeouts per nine innings and an opponents' batting average of .189.
Cleveland's bullpen will be well rested for Friday thanks to the rainout and Kluber's complete game.
"Our first time without Andrew out there, to have Corey just bypass those innings, that was really big," Francona said.
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