Jaime Garcia can finally spot the finish line.
The 26-year-old left-hander made his second minor league rehab start on Saturday evening at Double-A Springfield, surrendering just one run on two hits over 4 1/3 impressive innings. He struck out six and did not issue a walk while inducing six groundball outs.
According to Kary Booher of the Springfield News-Leader, Garcia is scheduled to make a third rehab start on Thursday. If that goes smoothly, he could be activated from the disabled list and cleared to rejoin the St. Louis staring rotation five days later.
That will mean pushing Joe Kelly or Lance Lynn into a middle relief gig.
Garcia had an underwhelming 4.48 ERA and 1.46 WHIP in 66 1/3 innings this season before hitting the shelf, but his career ERA is 3.45 and his career WHIP is 1.34. He struck out 156 batters in 32 starts last year.