Quintana gem more good news for White Sox rotation
MILWAUKEE — The White Sox have some holes in their lineup.
They don't play defense particularly well, and it's the same deal running the bases.
Strong solid pitching can erase a lot of mistakes, and that's why the Sox were so optimistic heading into the season.
Unfortunately, the 1-2 combo of Chris Sale and Jeff Samardzija got more attention for their raucous brawling than their premier pitching early in the campaign.
Jose Quintana also got off to a sluggish start, and John Danks and Hector Noesi were unreliable at the back end of the rotation.
The tide has turned — for the better — the past few days.
Sale looked like his old Cy Young contending self Tuesday night with 8 strong innings in a win over the Brewers. Earlier Tuesday, the White Sox announced that rookie stud Carlos Rodon was replacing Noesi in the starting five.
Quintana kept the good times rolling in Wednesday night's 4-2 victory over the Brewers at Miller Park.
“He was fantastic,” manager Robin Ventura said. “He was strong, even there at the end. He threw great. He was throwing strikes, got ahead early. We got a nice lead for him there in the first.
“We had a rally early that was nice to see. That's more of the stuff you expect out of him. When he throws strikes like that and is that aggressive, he's been good.”
In his best outing of the season, Quintana (2-3) allowed 1 run on 4 hits in 7 innings to go with 10 strikeouts.
Sale pitched 8 innings against Milwaukee and allowed 2 runs while striking out 11.
“For Chris to get the first one (Tuesday) and Q coming back and almost going 8, it is important,” Ventura said. “It's important to kind of get that mindset out there for those guys. I know that's what they want and it's good to get close to that.”
Quintana was at 109 pitches after the seventh inning, but he went back out in the eighth with a 4-0 lead.
Ventura quickly lifted the left-hander after Hector Gomez led off the eighth inning with a triple.
“For Q, when he throws like that he gets stronger as he goes along and you just trust him at that point to go ahead and keep going,” Ventura said. “Anytime he got in a little bit of a bind, he made his pitches.”
Outscored 24-7 in the first inning this season heading into the game, the White Sox jumped on Brewers starter Jimmy Nelson (1-4) for 3 runs their first time up.
Avisail Garcia and Adam LaRoche highlighted the big opening inning with back-to-back home runs. “It was big,” Garcia said. “We're just trying to win some games here and play hard every day.”
Melky Cabrera got the scoring started with a sacrifice fly in the first, and Emilio Bonifacio added an RBI single in the seventh inning.
The White Sox took two of three from the Brewers and have won three straight series.