Quintana continues strong run for Chicago Cubs rotation
While Chicago Cubs ace Jon Lester has been away, the rest of the rotation has played - and played well.
Picking up most of the slack during Lester's time on the injured list have been fellow lefties Cole Hamels and Jose Quintana.
Hamels starts Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Quintana showed the way Tuesday night by working 7 innings of 4-hit, 2-run ball as the Cubs scored a 7-2 victory over L.A. at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs improved to 11-10, marking the first time they have been over .500 since they won the season opener at Texas.
Quintana has been solid his last 3 starts, all since Lester went on the IL April 9. In each of those starts, Quintana worked 7 innings. He has an ERA of 0.86 in that time, having given up 14 hits and 2 earned runs. For the season, he improved to 3-1 and lowered his ERA from 3.43 to 3.21.
Since Lester has been out, the rest of the rotation has turned in 7 quality starts.
"Absolutely," said manager Joe Maddon. "We needed that kind of performance tonight. They have a very difficult lineup to navigate, and he was once again on top of his game. Great focus. Kept coming back with good pitches. The curveball was very pertinent tonight. And then some good changeups to go with the fastball.
"He's absolutely pitching right now, where in the past I thought he would pretty much rely on his fastball. He's becoming a pitch maker with all this stuff now, and he's done a nice job with it."
Quintana echoed that.
"I feel great," he said. "I've been throwing the ball really well the last starts, and all my stuff is working really good."
The Cubs sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning against Kenta Maeda and scored 4 runs. The big hit was a two-out, bases-loaded double by Willson Contreras. Anthony Rizzo hit a 2-run homer in the second.
Javier Baez didn't figure into the scoring that inning, but he did make more magic on the bases. He bounced a ball toward first base and then deked out David Freese, going left to elude the tag for an infield single.
Baez did add a solo home run in the seventh. It was his seventh homer of the season. He managed a sheepish smile over another baserunning exploit.
"I don't know," he said. "I saw him really close to the line. Usually on that play, you go around (to the right), like it's a basehit. I think if I would have kept going, he was going to run me over because he's a big dude. I think Billy Hamilton did it a couple years ago. That was the first thing that came to my mind, to stop and see the reaction.
"There are a lot of things players do, and you're never going to see them again in baseball because baseball is such a crazy game that it can go either way. I think the crazy stuff and the crazy plays are never going to end in MLB."