Quintana torched for 8 runs in loss to Brewers
MILWAUKEE - Not even sending noted Milwaukee Brewers killer Jose Quintana to the mound Friday night could save the Chicago Cubs.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon rearranged his starting rotation so that Quintana could face the Brewers, against whom he was 6-2 with a 1.62 for his career entering the game.
So much for that.
The Brewers scored 8 runs in 3 innings against Quintana, and even though the Cubs mounted a comeback, the Brewers managed to prevail 13-10, sending the Cubs to their sixth straight defeat and dropping their record to 1-6. First-place Milwaukee improved to 7-1 and increased their lead over the last-place Cubs to 5½ games in the National League Central.
Brewers manager Craig Counsell talked respectfully of the Cubs, perhaps not wanting to wake the slumbering neighbors to the south.
"Nothing changes from our perspective," said Counsell, whose team overtook the Cubs last September and won the NL Central. "It's a really good team that's in our division that we know is going to be there in the end. It's the first of many meetings this year. I like to put it into the fans' perspective as a football schedule: We're at halftime in Week 1 in the baseball season. Nothing's happened yet. The season is not past the beginning yet."
The Brewers roughed up Quintana for a pair of runs in the first inning as the Cubs committed 2 errors. Ryan Braun hit a 3-run homer in Milwaukee's 4-run second inning. Hernan Perez and Yasmani Grandal went back to back in the third.
Until then, Quintana's dominance of the Brewers had been a mystery to both teams. But on this night, the Brewers figured him out quickly.
"I think they really ambushed against me tonight," said Quintana, who made a relief appearance last weekend at Texas. "They jumped in right away. The problem was, when I gave the home run against Braun, the game changed their way. It was really tough this time. It's no fun. I feel really bad."
The Cubs cut the deficit to 8-4 in the fourth, with 3 coming in on Daniel Descalso's homer. Willson Contreras homered in the fifth to make it 8-5, but the problems continued for Cubs reliever Carl Edwards Jr., who gave up a 2-run homer to Orlando Arcia in the bottom of the inning.
Even though they seemed stunned by their slow start to the season, Cubs players insist there's no panic.
"I'm disappointed, but I think when everything kind of comes together as a team, I think we'll be just like we were the previous years," said third baseman Kris Bryant. "It's not what we talked about in spring, that we want to get off to a great start, but it's going to make our story that much better. There's no time to put our head down and sit here and complain or whine. We've got so many games left. It's kind of important to stay together."
Said Maddon: "Quintana's been so good against these guys. They came out and they got him quickly. That was pretty much it. But I love the way our guys fought back, not just trying to look for a moral victory. I thought we played it hard all the way through."