PITTSBURGH – Before the Cubs’ 11-3 victory over the Pirates on Thursday, rookie Robel Garcia was asked where all his power this year came from.
“The Dominican,” he said.
His interpreter for the occasion, teammate Pedro Strop, elaborated/translated:
“It’s plantain power.”
Whatever he wants to call it and wherever it came from, it left a mark on the Pirates in Garcia’s first career big-league start Thursday.
Specifically, it left a mark on the green batter’s eye behind the “Pirates” shrub sculpture, beyond the centerfield wall – where he hit his sixth-inning home run on a day he also tripled and singled.