Quintana Makes it a Quintet of Quality Starts
What has gotten into Jose Quintana?!
“Confidence,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after the lefty twirled seven shutout innings Wednesday in a 10-0 win over Washington. “A guy that he knows he’s done it before. He’s been in this league for a long time. There’s a reason why. He knows that you gonna go through stretches where it’s hard and he continues to find a way.”
Quintana, 35, is on a career-high 23.2 scoreless innings streak after his latest gem. In his last five starts, his ERA is an absurd 0.28. He joins Jacob deGrom, R.A. Dickey, Dwight Gooden and Jerry Koosman as the only Mets pitchers with an ERA under 0.30 during a five-start span. The sudden dominance came after a four-start run where his ERA was an ugly 8.27. What changed?
“He’s just basically trusting his pitches, his repertoire in the strike zone,” Mendoza explained. “We saw it today with his two-seam the way it was playing he continues to get ground balls. We make some really good plays behind him, on the same page as the catchers, you know, the breaking ball, the slurve, or whatever we’re calling it right now. The change-up, it’s just in and out, up and down, keeping hitters off balance. There’s a lot to like about Quintana. But I think it comes down to staying on the attack.”
Brad Penner-Imagn Images
The numbers show Quintana has gone to his sinker more (34.8 percent vs. 24.7 percent) during this five-game stretch compared to the bad four-game period. He recorded 15 outs via the sinker on Wednesday. He’s also been able to locate his fastball in the strike zone at a higher clip (51.4 percent vs. 43.8 percent) and batters are hitting .158 against his change-up vs. .294.
When his work was done, he celebrated by jumping around with the other starters in a group circle in the dugout. (This has recently become a thing in a season full of things.) Met starters have an MLB-leading 1.77 ERA for September. Collectively, Quintana said, the group talked about making adjustments.
“Things like stop walking people a lot,” he said. “You know, try to be aggressive in the zone. I think it’s a really good competition, like healthy competition for all the starters to see if we can go deep. We celebrate, we help each other every night, and we push it for any starter to be on the mound. For any reliever. We pushing together. It’s amazing to be a part of this group and just really excited for how we’ve been playing.”
The veteran also shouted out the defense.
“When you can execute pitches and your defense make that kind of plays, that’s awesome,” he said. “That guy Acuña can play. He’s really good. He’s really good. He made a couple of plays, and definitely he is one of the best.” And Jose Iglesias? “Wow. Mr. Oh My God. He’s incredible every time. I was so excited.”
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