The last time Freddy Garcia had started a game, he was drilled by the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. The last time Garcia’s fellow staff relic, Bartolo Colon, started a game, he had to leave because of injury.
One veteran Yankees starter is out. The other had to rebound yesterday.
And did.
“Between [Garcia] trying to fight back from the last time, knowing that we just lost Bartolo the night before, [we know] that everybody’s talking about hey, the pitchers are going to be the big question mark,” Curtis Granderson said. “He’s gone ahead, here’s another chance to prove everybody wrong again.”
The 34-year-old Garcia delivered yesterday in The Bronx, firing 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball in the Yankees’ 9-1 rout of the Indians.
The 38-year-old Colon was put on the disabled list yesterday with a strained hamstring, heightening the need for the Garcia to answer the doubters.
Similarly, the Yankees continue to answer after the Red Sox swept them last week. They took the first three of a four-game series with Cleveland, doing so by a combined score of 24-8.
The Yankees gave Garcia, who allowed seven hits, a run and two walks, plenty of support by pounding out a season-high 18 hits and nine runs (their most this season without a homer). Seven Yankees had at least two hits, six scored at least one run and five drove in at least one run.
Derek Jeter was included in all three groups; going 2-for-5 with two singles moving his career hit total to 2,993, a run and two RBIs. Granderson cracked four hits, driving in two runs and scoring two. Alex Rodriguez had three hits and three RBIs, and Brett Gardner, who led off an inning in each of his four at-bats, had two doubles and a triple and scored three runs.
Garcia, rebounding from his 1 2/3-inning disaster versus Boston, did not have a single clean inning, but still managed to toss shutout ball into the seventh, by which time the Yankees led 6-0.
The Indians went 0-for-17 with men on base and 0-for-12 with men in scoring position. Against Garcia, it was 0-for-11 and 0-for-10, respectively, but that’s nothing new. Garcia has held hitters to a .134 average (9-for-67) with runners in scoring position and .198 (21-for-106) with runners on base.
“Guys on base, I don’t know the exact numbers,” Mark Teixeira said, “but I know it’s really good.”
Part of the reason why was Garcia’s splitter. In the first inning, with a runner on first and two outs, he struck out Carlos Santana with the splitter. In the second inning, with a runner on second and two outs, he struck out Austin Kearns with the splitter. In the fourth inning, with a runner on third and one out, he struck out Orlando Cabrera with the splitter. He finished with six strikeouts.
“His splitty was awesome,” catcher Russell Martin said, “and I think that was the difference between this start and his last start.”
More than a third of the way through the season, Garcia is 5-5 with a 3.60 ERA and has given the Yankees at least six innings in eight of his 11 starts.
Colon is out. Garcia is not.
mark.hale@nypost.com