Toronto, ON (SportsNetwork.com) - Jaime Garcia twirled seven outstanding innings as the St. Louis Cardinals shut out the Toronto Blue Jays for a second straight day via a 5-0 victory at Rogers Centre.
Garcia (2-0) followed up Shelby Miller's complete-game effort in Saturday's 5-0 triumph with a gem of his own, yielding just three singles and three walks in his best outing since returning from the disabled list in mid-May.
"They have one of the best lineups in the league. I knew it was going to be a challenge," said Garcia. "I was able to get them off balance a little bit and then keep the ball down."
The effort, supported by home runs from Matt Carpenter and Jhonny Peralta, gave St. Louis its first series win since taking two of three games from Cincinnati from May 23-25.
Carpenter finished with two hits and two RBI and Peralta went 2-for-4 with a solo blast.
Both homers were served up by Drew Hutchison (4-4), who lasted only three innings and was tagged for five runs and six hits.
Garcia held Toronto's usually potent bats in check all throughout the afternoon, registering 15 ground-ball outs and permitting just one hit until Jose Reyes singled with two down in the fifth inning.
That was the Jays' best scoring chance of the contest, as a passed ball and a Carpenter error got Reyes to third before Garcia fanned Jose Bautista.
"It was like he was ahead of us the whole game, moving in and out," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said of Garcia.
Garcia's teammates gave him plenty of cushion earlier by battering Hutchinson for five hits during a four-run second inning.
Singles by Jon Jay and Mark Ellis began the uprising and Peter Bourjos' sacrifice fly drove in the game's first run before Tony Cruz lashed a double to left to bring home Ellis.
Carpenter then homered off the batter's eye in center field to put the Cardinals up by a comfortable 4-0 count.
"I did a bad job of controlling the situation," Hutchison said. "I fell behind some guys and hung some pitches and made mistakes and they got hit."
Peralta extended the margin an inning later, hammering a second-pitch slider from Hutchinson into the left-field seats.
Todd Redmond took over for Hutchinson to begin the fourth inning and limited St. Louis to four hits over five scoreless frames.
Game Notes
The shutout was the Cardinals' 12th in 64 games this season ... Toronto lost a series for the first time since dropping three of four to the Angels from May 9-12, with the Jays going 6-0-1 in seven sets since ... St. Louis' Matt Holliday was scratched from the lineup due to lower back tightness, with Yadier Molina filling in at DH ... Reyes' single extended his hitting streak
to nine games ... Garcia had not walked a batter in any of his four previous starts this season.
