Rehabbing St. Louis Cardinals LHP Jaime Garcia pitched five hitless innings for the Peoria Chiefs on Thursday. (Photo courtesy of the Peoria Chiefs)

Rehabbing St. Louis Cardinals left-hander Jaime Garcia struck out six batters while pitching the first five innings of the Peoria Chiefs’ no-hitter over the Clinton LumberKings on Thursday.

James Alfonso was the only Clinton batter to reach base, taking first after Garcia hit him with a pitch in the 3rd inning.

Relievers Steven Sabatino and Cody Schumacher pitched the final four innings to preserve the no-hitter and secure Peoria’s 2-0 win. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the 8th inning, when Andrew Sohn scored the first run on a wild pitch and Oscar Mercado drove in the second run with a RBI single.

The no-hitter is the second in the Midwest League this season — three Clinton pitchers combined to no-hit the Cedar Rapids Kernels on May 1 — and is the first Peoria no-no since Austin Kirk no-hit the LumberKings on July 4, 2011. (I was at the Kirk no-hitter, which you can read about here.)