Quintana, Chicago White Sox fall flat in season-opening loss
This seems to be the way the pro sports world works now.
In Sunday's season opener, Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka was shelled by the Tampa Bay Rays and the internet exploded with advice for New York general manager Brian Cashman - trade for Jose Quintana now!
The weather cooperated Tuesday, so the Chicago White Sox got to play their first game of the season.
Quintana was on the mound, he got shelled in the second inning, and the Sox lost to the Tigers 6-3 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Naturally, Sox GM Rick Hahn was getting the same kind of treatment as Cashman - you waited too long to trade Quintana!
In reality, Tanaka's opening tank was a blip.
And so was Quintana's second inning against Detroit, during which he allowed a 3-run homer to JaCoby Jones and a 2-run shot to Nick Castellanos.
"I feel really good and have confidence in myself," said Quintana, who has been the subject of intense trade rumors for the last 10 months. "It was just the first start. I have a long season and I'll try the next time to throw the ball better."
Jones' home run was the first of his career, and the Tigers' center fielder had to drop the barrel of his bat down on a Quintana curveball and golf it out.
The pitch to Castellanos was a fastball Quintana failed to locate, as was the pitch Ian Kinsler connected on for a solo homer in the fourth inning.
In 2016, Quintana didn't allow his third home run of the season until June 11, his 13th start.
"Those are very rare," manager Rick Renteria said after Quintana gave up 6 runs on 5 hits, 3 walks and a hit batter in 5⅓ innings. "He's been pretty good, pretty consistent. He just didn't command the strike zone as well as he wanted to. Just chalk it up to an anomaly, and you expect when he gets back out there again he'll be his old self."
The White Sox's offense didn't fare nearly as well against Detroit starter Justin Verlander, who was second in Cy Young voting last season.
Melky Cabrera put the Sox in front with an RBI double in the first inning, but Verlander quickly settled down and piled up 10 strikeouts while allowing 2 runs on 6 hits in 6⅓ innings.
"He was pounding the zone and he was elevating as he does," Renteria said. "He gets the strikeouts going just above. You see it at your eye level and it's kind of hard to lay off.
"We had some guys that had a tough time laying off that pitch. Even though you talk about it, you go over it, it's still one of those things where you're facing an ace. He is an ace and he did what he normally does; he attacks the zone and then he ends up making you chase up out of the zone."
After Monday's season opener was postponed by rain, Tuesday's makeup game was played in front of a sparse crowd. The weather forecast for Wednesday also calls for rain.
"Yeah, it stinks," third baseman Todd Frazier said. "It's frustrating because you want to get going a little bit. At the same time we've got to keep focused and keep our mindset right, no matter what."