With the Yankees figuring out their rotation options early this season, Deivi Garcia got to make his 2021 season debut on Monday, but it didn't start exactly how he or the organization would've liked -- he was optioned back to the Alternate Site after his performance.

Garcia's second pitch of the game was crushed out to deep right by Cedric Mullens and nearly out of the park to open things up for the Baltimore Orioles.

They followed that up in the second inning with an RBI double to left center by Freddy Galvis that brought in Pedro Severino from first.

From then on, Garcia calmed down and straighten out his line a bit, not allowing another run for the rest of his outing, but it only lasted another two innings from there, as Aaron Boone elected to go to the bullpen early.

"I knew we were lined up that we could go inning by inning to get towards the end there," Boone said after the game, which the Yankees lost 4-2. "I was prepared [to go] 75, maybe 80 pitches...but once he got through that lineup the second time, made a big pitch to get out of it in the fourth...I just felt like we were lined up there well."

Garcia's final stat line ended at two earned runs on three hits and three walks in four innings, with four strikeouts on 65 pitches.

"Definitely a learning experience here and a competitive one too," Garcia said through an interpreter after the game. "I felt like I had to battle every single pitch. It was a competitive outing for me.

"Learning how to have an effective mix of pitches. Sometimes, certain pitches are not as sharp as you would like and you have to find a rhythm and you have to find what kind of mix of pitches is going to work out."

This gives him a 4.50 ERA to start the season. Not great, but the four innings on the mound were a small sample size for pitching and it was just his first start.

The Yankees rotation after Gerrit Cole -- who holds a stellar 1.71 ERA -- holds a combined 5.61 ERA between Jameson Taillon, Corey Kluber, Domingo German and Jordan Montgomery, so it's possible that Garcia could plug himself into that rotation permanently down the line.

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